MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Turkey slams Argentine Judge ruling blaming Ottomans for Armenian genocide

Federio Gatian Hairabedian, the plaintiff solicitor

Turkey has slammed an Argentine judge's ruling that it committed genocide against Armenians around the time of World War I. The Turkish Foreign Affairs Ministry said the ruling was an example of how legal systems are abused by extreme nationalists belonging to the Armenian Diaspora.

Judge Norberto Oyarbide ruled that “the Turkish state committed the crime of genocide against the Armenian people” between 1915 and 1923, after an ethnic Armenian filed a lawsuit against Turkey in Argentina in 2001.

Turkey said the decision was based on unserious accusations, and it destabilizes efforts to mend ties with Armenia.

Many international experts say the killing of up to 1.5 million Armenians by Ottoman Turks around the time constituted genocide. Turkey, however, maintains far fewer died than claimed and any deaths were instead due to civil war and unrest. The ruling from the Argentine Judge comes ahead of April 24, which Armenians say marks the beginning of the genocide.

“After 96 years of impunity Argentina is the first country in the world to elaborate a judicial resolution of this kind based in the principle of non prescription of crimes against humanity” said Federio Gatian Hairabedian, the plaintiff solicitor and grandson of Gregorio Hairabedian who filed the genocide claim in the name of the Armenian community in Argentina.

The ruling was supported by the Buenos Aires chapter of the International Foundation Raoul Wallenberg, a NGO dedicated to honour and remember those who risked their lives to save Holocaust victims.

“At the Wallenberg Foundation we believe it is time to start a new chapter of this tragic episode. We are willing to begin an investigation with the purpose of identifying those Turks who could have saved Armenians during the genocide”, said Baruj Tenembaum, founder of the NGO which its main offices in New York.

In a separate statement the Turkish Ministry of Foreign Affairs also raised concerns over a recent spike in attacks by Armenian groups against Turkey’s promotional activities abroad.

Recalling Armenian attacks on a Turkish clothing exhibition in Beirut and at the International Book Fair in Paris, the statement said this kind of aggressive methods based on radical nationalist mentality was reflected in terror attacks in the past.

Turkey urged authorities in Lebanon and France to investigate the attacks and perpetrators and said it expects preventive measures against similar incidents.

Meanwhile, an Armenian news portal reported that Armenian producer Tigran Khzmalyan’s “Armin Wegner,” a movie featuring the so-called Armenian genocide, will be screened in Teheran on April 24, “Armenian Genocide Remembrance Day.”

The film director told a news conference in Yerevan that the movie is currently being translated into Farsi. “I’m glad that the screening is scheduled for April 24, which increases its political meaning. Members of the Armenian community as well as Iranian parliamentarians will attend the screening,” panarmenian.net quoted the director as saying.
It was not immediately clear if Iranian authorities were aware of the screening and its political implications, according to the Turkish press.