ATHENS (Horizon Weekly)—The Talaat Pasha Committee, a Turkish nationalist organization aiming to counter recognition of the Armenian Genocide, has been refused entry to Athens, where it had gone to issue a statement in protest at a recently approved Greek bill.
The members of the committee left for Athens on Jan. 9 with the aim of making a statement in front of the Greek Parliament.
The committee wanted to protest and demand the withdrawal of a controversial bill approved by Greece’s parliament in September that stiffens penalties for racially motivated crime and criminalizes the denial of genocide and war crimes.
The delegation of 13 people was intercepted by police at the airport and prevented from entering the city for “security reasons.” They were sent back to Turkey on the next flight.
The Greek Parliament adopted by a vote of 54 to 42, on Sept. 9, 2014, an anti-hate crime law — Combating Discrimination, Xenophobia, and Racism — making it illegal to deny the Jewish Holocaust, and genocides recognized by international courts or by the Greek Parliament, including the genocide of Pontus Greeks, the genocide of Asia Minor Greeks, and the Armenian Genocide. Those violating this new law would be fined up to 30,000 euros or imprisoned for up to three years.
The Greek law stems from the European Union’s 2008 “Framework Decision against Racism and Xenophobia,” which urged all EU states to adopt laws that punish racism, xenophobia, denial of genocide, crimes against humanity, and war crimes.
Each and every member of this anti-Armenian racist committee should meet the same fate as Talaat, the interior minister of the Ottoman Empire and the Mastermind of the Armenian Genocide. It would be nice if this took place in Berlin as well.
the yshould have let them in and put them in a sewer-home sweet home for the dirt they are
Terrorist state of Turkey will continue the denial of Armenian Genocide, until the Int’l community obliges him to do so. Genocide perpetrators never admit their guilt, Pol Pot of Cambodia never accepted his commiting Genocide, Criminals never accept their crime.
What a nice picture of Genocidal Turkey in Western Clothings! Who is fooling whom?
Thank You Greece , You know the Real Culture of these turks. I am sure that a Lot of other Free Countries in the World will act like Greece in banning such racists people to enter their countries . The Armenian Genocide will remain a nightmare for those deniers as long as they do not recognize the Armenian Genocide and give the proper reparation for the Armenian People.
I don’t think that there are many countries who would act like Greece respecting the justice of us and whole humanity
The Greeks are our brothers and sisters in suffering. We always will be. If we commemorate Vartanants one thousand five hundred years hence, how long will it be before we forget about the Genocide?