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Originally posted by Gavur
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Saturday, June 30, 2007
ANKARA – Turkish Daily News
Turkish politician, Do?u Perinçek, convicted of racism for denying the alleged genocide of Armenians was refused a visa as he failed to produce legal documentation from his lawyer or the Lausanne court confirming his invitation to Switzerland, his Workers’ Party (?P) said in a statement released Thursday.
“This is an international outrage. The Swiss state is refusing to issue a visa for Perinçek,” read the ?P statement. Officials from the Swiss Embassy said a letter of invitation from the Lausanne court or from his lawyer was needed to issue a visa for Perinçek and under those circumstances they could issue a visa for the day of invitation, it added.
Officials at the Swiss Embassy declined to comment on the refusal.
Last week, Perinçek lost his first appeal at a Swiss court in the canton (state) of Vaud, where a lower tribunal in March convicted and ordered him to pay a fine of 3,000 Swiss francs ($2,450).
Perinçek, who was also given a suspended penalty of 9,000 francs ($7,360) and ordered to pay 1,000 francs ($820) to an Armenian association, had repeatedly denied during a visit to Switzerland in 2005, that the 1915 killings of Armenians at the hands of the Ottoman Empire amounted to genocide.
The ?P leader is now planning to appeal to the Federal Tribunal, Switzerland’s Supreme Court, but he is unable to meet with his lawyer with respect to his rights to appeal, due to the lack of a visa.
“Switzerland is not allowing me to go to Lausanne to utilize my right to appeal,” Perinçek said at a press conference. “It is a strange situation. The Swiss state, the prosecuting party that convicted me, is refusing to let me go to Switzerland and defend myself in person.”
AP Worldstream
Published: Jun 30, 2007
Two Turks were arrested Saturday on suspicion of breaking Swiss
anti-racism laws for allegedly denying that the killing of Armenians in
the early 20th century was genocide, police said.
The two were arrested at a conference in the Zurich suburb of
Winterthur, where posters were hung up and leaflets distributed
rejecting that the killing was genocide. One of the Turks organized the
event and the other was shouting slogans before a crowd.
Switzerland's anti-racism legislation, which previously applied to
Holocaust denial, was used earlier this year to prosecute a Turkish
politician for denying at a gathering in 2005 that the Turks committed
genocide in the World War I-era killings.
Last week, a Swiss cantonal court upheld the conviction against Dogu
Perincek, the leader of the Turkish Workers' Party, as well as an order
for him to pay a fine of 3,000 Swiss francs (US$2,450; A1,870).
The case of Perincek, who was also ordered to pay 1,000 francs (US$820;
A620) to an Armenian association, has caused diplomatic tension between
Switzerland and Turkey. Turkey insists Armenians were killed in civil
unrest during the tumultuous collapse of the Ottoman Empire and not in
a campaign of genocide. Turkey also rejects Armenian claims that the
death toll reached 1.5 million.
Perincek was invited to Saturday's conference, but was prevented from
entering Switzerland because he had not applied for a visa, said
Dominique Boillat, spokesman for the Federal Office for Migration.
Police in the canton (state) of Zurich identified the two arrested
individuals as a 57-year-old resident of Germany and a 51-year-old
Swiss resident.
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