Dogu Perincek, the leader of the Turkish Workers’ Party, failed last week to repeat in Greece the denialist show he had orchestrated in Switzerland 10 years ago. Along with members of his blasphemous Talat Pasha Committee, Perincek had planned to travel to Athens to challenge the recent Greek law banning denial of the Armenian Genocide. He dreamed of becoming “a hero” by filing a lawsuit against Greece in the European Court of Human Rights after his anticipated arrest for violating that law.
Back in 2005, after his detention by Swiss police, Perincek was found guilty of denying the Armenian Genocide. When Switzerland’s Federal Court (Supreme Court) confirmed his sentence, Perincek appealed the verdict in 2008 to the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR). On Dec. 17, 2013, five out of seven ECHR judges ruled in Perincek’s favor, claiming that the Swiss courts had violated his freedom of speech. Three months later, Switzerland appealed ECHR’s flawed ruling to the court’s 17-member Grand Chamber, which is scheduled to review the earlier verdict on Jan. 28, 2015.
Fortunately, Perincek’s planned prank in Greece ran into multiple walls! To begin with, he could not leave Turkey due to a travel ban after his conditional release from jail as a participant in a coup plot. In his absence, when his Party’s 13-member delegation arrived at the Athens airport, Greek authorities wisely decided to deport the group back to Turkey rather than create a spectacle by arresting them. The Greek police used the excuse that the Turkish visitors’ travel documents were not in order.
Upon returning to Istanbul, the expelled Turks were hailed as “heroes” by fellow party members. Perincek promptly blamed President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu for their “extremely shameful decision” that prevented him from going to Greece to deny the Armenian Genocide. Perincek’s followers also accused Turkey’s ambassador to Greece of colluding with the Greek government to undermine their mission. In response, Turkish Ambassador Kerim Uras blamed the Talat Pasha Committee members for damaging their own plans by announcing them in advance, despite the ambassador’s admonition to arrive in Athens quietly and go public after getting there! Uras added that due to the Turkish delegation’s premature public statements, the Armenian community in Athens was prepared to hold a counter protest.
Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu defended the court’s ban on Perincek’s travel to Greece. During a press conference, Cavusoglu refuted Perincek’s accusation that Ankara had tried to undermine his committee’s trip to Greece. However, a much more important trip awaits Perincek on Jan. 28, when he expects to attend the hearing of Switzerland’s appeal of his case at the ECHR in Strasbourg. Even though Cavusoglu had told Perincek in a phone conversation that the Turkish government did not object to his going to Strasbourg, the foreign minister warned that the final decision to lift Perincek’s travel ban rested with Turkey’s Supreme Court. Ankara now needs to balance the disadvantage of boosting the standing of an ultranationalist critic of the ruling party against the advantage of backing an overzealous denialist during the Centennial of the Armenian Genocide.
The Turkish and international media widely disseminated the breaking news I had first reported in a previous column, disclosing that Amal Clooney along with Geoffrey Robertson and other distinguished attorneys would represent Armenia at the ECHR hearing on Jan. 28. The news of Mrs. Clooney’s involvement in this legal case prompted a bizarre reaction from Perincek, who told the Turkish press: “The woman can attend the court hearing, but even if the wife of Jesus comes, she has no chance of success!”
Since my last column, several readers have pointed out the little-known family link between Mrs. Clooney (Amal Ramzi Alamuddin) and “Papa” Jakob Kuenzler, a Swiss missionary known as “the father of Armenian orphans.”
Kuenzler and his wife diligently aided the Armenian community in Urfa for 25 years until the genocide. Then in the 1920’s, the Kuenzlers began working for Near East Relief, evacuating thousands of Armenian orphans from Turkey to Ghazir, Lebanon, where Armenian girls wove the famous “White House Rug,” which was donated to U.S. President Calvin Coolidge in 1925.
The Kuenzlers’ daughter Ida married Najib Alamuddin, the cousin of Amal’s grandfather, Khalil Alamuddin. In 1970, Ida Kuenzler published a remarkable book about her father’s devoted humanitarian work: Papa Kuenzler and the Armenians.
Harut Sassounian
ok thats good but what about greek tourist visiting turkey istanbuk aka hagia sophia spends millions euro expenses during the holiday no visit by greeks to armenia ? explain me
Because Turkey occupies our heritage and we can only visit. Greeks go to Armenia, it’s just not widespread, holidays are cheaper in Turkey apparently and don’t forget, Turkey is a drive over the border, with Armenia it’s a flight and the economic crisis has meant Greeks take less holidays now
If memory serves, when French Constitutional Court took the case of the AG Denial Criminalization Law, which had passed both houses _overwhelmingly_, Mr. Sassounian wrote an article naming several members of the court who had close commercial or other ties with Turkey, and urging that they be disqualified from hearing the case.
The court’s ultimate Anti-AG decision was clearly contrived, given the fact that an almost identical law, the Jewish Holocaust denial criminalization law, is deemed constitutional.
And now French-Armenians found evidence that at least one member of the CC colluded with the Denialist Turks.
[Emails Reveal Ankara Colluded with French Judge to Defeat Genocide Denial Measure]
http://armenianweekly.com/2015/01/13/ankara-french-judge/
If there is one, there are surely others, although they would be more careful to cover their dirty tracks.
Now we come to the Perincek case.
Again, as Mr. Sassounian wrote after the first round of the ECHR decision, the arguments of the judges on behalf of Perincek were clearly contrived to achieve the desired result for the AG denialists.
No tracks have been found yet, but does anybody doubt that Turks and their Anti-AG allies in Europe (guess who ?) ‘bought’ or corrupted some ECHR judges ?
And finally: does anyone doubt that Turks and their Anti-AG allies in ECHR have not been busy ‘buying’, blackmailing, interfering/influencing, corrupting some of the judges of the full ECHR panel right after Switzerland announced they would appeal ?
The case could have been thrown by corrupt ECHR judges even before the hearings start.
The French case and the Perincek case should hopefully disabuse all of us from the fantasy that because our cause is just, we will prevail by default.
If we have to play dirty to win, we must: nobody remembers or cares how a law is passed. If it is on the books, that’s all that counts.
Sad to say but AKP is fairly moderate with its approach to the AG.
@RVDV
I’m sad to say but Syriza and New Democracy have always been too weak on Turkey, it should have a tougher political front and it shouldn’t hesitate if necessary to block Turkish citizens and boycott Turkish goods coming into Greece if Turkey does not behave. Turkey-the playboy of Europe, blackmailing Europe into special treatment and money, using refugees as a bargaining chip. You are all scum come to think of it. Turkey is our neighbour to force us Greeks to atone for our sins. Greece is not the spoilt child of Europe, it’s Turkey.