Turkey’s Ministry of Justice has authorized an investigation to be launched against the former president of the Diyarbakir Bar Association and members of its executive board, reports “Ermenihaber.”
The reason is the statement the bar association issued on the occasion of April 24, 2018. The organization’s former president, Ahmet Özmen, and 10 members of the governing board have been charged under the characteristics of Article 301 of the criminal code, specifically on the point of “publicly inciting the people to hatred and enmity, demeaning the Grand National Assembly of Turkey.”
In the statement issued by the Diyarbakir Bar Association on April 24, 2018, under the title “We share the great unhealed pain of the Armenian people,” it was stated:
“Those responsible at the time pursued a cruel policy, first by destroying Armenian intellectuals and leaders, and then, under the name of the ‘Law on Deportation,’ leading more than a million citizens to their deaths toward the borders of Syria through military units and the intelligence structure, the Teşkilatı Mahsusa (Special Organization).
The suffering was so great that in the UN Convention on Genocide, the term ‘genocide’ was created inspired by what was done to the Armenian people. In Constantinople, Diyarbakir, Van, and a number of cities in Anatolia where Armenians lived, the devastation and deep pain caused by massacre, exile, and displacement remain fresh. With respect, we commemorate the civilian victims and all innocent Armenians who perished during the genocide.”
