Diplomatic Immunity Covers "Cowardice": Turkish Minister Not Liable

DIPLOMATIC IMMUNITY COVERS “COWARDICE”: TURKISH MINISTER NOT LIABLE IN SWITZERLAND
By Siranuysh Gevorgyan

ArmeniaNow
03.04.12 | 15:15

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Egemen BagıÅ~_, Turkey’s Minister for European Union (EU) Affairs
will not be made accountable for his statements over the Armenian
Genocide made in Switzerland in the heat of debate about France’s
failed initiative to criminalize genocide denial. As Turkish mass
media report, the Zurich General Prosecutor’s Office believes that
when BagıÅ~_ made that statement he had diplomatic immunity.

The investigation against BagıÅ~_ started soon after the World
Economic Forum in Davos in January, when responding to a French
journalist’s question about his opinion on the resolution “On
Criminalizing Denial of the Armenian Genocide” adopted by the
French Senate (later the Constitutional Court of France found it
unconstitutional), BagıÅ~_ said that no Armenian Genocide had taken
place. “Switzerland is another country where the denial of the, so
called, genocide is considered to be a crime. Today in Switzerland
I announce that the events of 1915 are not to be considered as
genocide. Let them come and arrest me,” he stated.

The decision of the Zurich Prosecutor’s Office was not unexpected
for Giro Manoyan, Director of the International Secretariat of the
Armenian Revolutionary Federation (Dashnaktsutyun) Bureau in Yerevan.

“BagıÅ~_ is inviolable as a minister, and I believe this is the only
reason why Switzerland cannot file a lawsuit against him. But he,
making such a statement in Switzerland insults it, knowing that he
breaks the law of this country,” Manoyan told ArmeniaNow, excluding
that the stopping of the investigation against BagıÅ~_ has political
motives. “Had there been such a thing they would not have started
the investigation at all.”

Many in Armenia called BagıÅ~_ a coward, emphasizing that he would not
have made such a statement in Switzerland, where denial of genocide
is banned by the Criminal Code of the country, were it not for his
diplomatic status.