19 January 2010, 23:50
Turkey: criminal prosecution against organizers of the action "We beg Armenians' pardon" stopped
The criminal case opened against the organizers of the Internet action "We beg Armenians' pardon" is finally stopped. Earlier the public prosecutor of Turkey A. Jaren refused to put forward charges against a group of Turkish intellectuals, who had initiated signing-in a letter of sympathy with the Armenian people because of the genocide of Armenians in the Ottoman empire of 1915.
Prosecutor Jaren has treated this initiative as an action expressing the freedom of thought and decided to stop the criminal prosecution of its organizers. His decision was repeatedly appealed against at various judicial instances by the authors of the claim, who demanded to punish and condemn the action organizers for "kindling hatred in people and for public humiliation of the Turkish people." After the appellate procedures in various instances, the criminal case was finally stopped.
Let us remind you that in the autumn of 2008 a group of Turkish intellectuals addressed their petition to the Turkish public as follows: "My conscience fails to accept the callosity exhibited in relation to the Great Tragedy suffered by Armenians in the Ottoman Turkey in 1915. I'm against this injustice and sympathize to the grief of Armenian brothers and sisters. And I beg their pardon." For a short period of time the petition was signed by some 30,000 persons, many students among them.
Professor Ruben Safrastyan, Director of the Institute of Oriental Studies of the National Academy of Sciences of Armenia, told the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent that this action became s start of the process of revaluation by the Turkish society of the country's past.
Author: Lilit Ovanisyan Source: CK correspondent
