"A Swiss court has convicted a Turkish politician of racial discrimination for denying that mass killings of Armenians in Turkey in 1915 amounted to genocide.
Nationalist leader Dogu Perincek, 65, was on trial for remarks he made in a public speech in Lausanne in 2005.
He was given a suspended sentence and fined $2,450 (£1,270).
The Swiss parliament, along with more than a dozen countries, has labelled the killings as genocide. Turkey firmly rejects the genocide allegation.
Perincek, the head of the Turkish Workers' Party, had denied the charges.
"I have not denied genocide because there was no genocide," he told the court earlier this week.
Armenians say 1.5 million of their people were killed in a genocide by Ottoman Turks during World War I, either through systematic massacres or through starvation.
More than a dozen countries, various international bodies and many Western historians agree that it was genocide.
Turkey says there was no genocide. It acknowledges that many Armenians died, but says the figure was below one million.
A law criminalising the denial of genocide was adopted in 2003 by the parliament in the Swiss canton of Vaud, where Perincek made his remarks.
Twelve Turks prosecuted in Switzerland on similar charges in 2001 were acquitted."
I ask myself where the EU that convicts Turkish Republic for taking Orhan Pamuk to court because of his ideas and her that this is against the human rights. Where is the proof that there was an Armenian genocide? How can a European court pass sentence on something on circumstantial evidence without any substance behind it?I think Turkish Republic award a medal to Mr. Perincek in a similar attitude where Europe awarded Mr. Pamuk a Nobel prize under disputable circumstances.
Even better, Turkish parliament should pass a law to convict anyone that claims an Armenian Genocide. See the Europeans like it.
It is a shame that EU is pushing Turkey away so eagerly. It is going to come back to bite it. Shame!
