Cyprus-Forum.com

[Alectryon]

Cyprus Criminalizes Denial of 1915 Armenian Genocide

NICOSIA—Cyprus on Thursday made it a crime to deny that Ottoman Turks committed genocide against Armenian Turks a century ago, a move likely to rile its old rival Turkey as peace talks on the ethnically split island remain stalled.

The Cypriot parliament passed a resolution penalizing denial of genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes, modifying existing legislation, which required prior conviction by an international court to make denial a crime.

"Today is a historic day," said Yiannakis Omirou, parliament speaker. "It allows parliament to restore, with unanimous decisions and resolutions, historical truths."

The east Mediterranean island, split in a Turkish invasion in 1974 after a brief Greek-inspired coup, was one of the first countries worldwide in 1975 to recognize the Armenian killings as genocide. It is commemorated on April 24.

The nature and scale of the killings remain highly contentious. Turkey accepts that many Armenians died in partisan fighting beginning in 1915, but denies that up to 1.5 million were killed and that this constituted an act of genocide, a term used by many Western historians and foreign parliaments.

In a statement, Turkish Foreign Ministry spokesman Tanju Bilgic said the Cypriot resolution was "null and void to us and not worthy of comment."

"Those who have tried to exploit the events of 1915 at every opportunity by using base political calculations have not been able to achieve any result until now and won't do so in the future," he added.

Armenia accuses the Ottoman authorities at the time of systematically massacring large numbers of Armenians and deporting many more, including women, children, the elderly and infirm, in terrible conditions on so-called death marches.

The issue has long been a source of tension between Turkey and several Western countries, especially the United States and France, both home to large ethnic Armenian diasporas. Cyprus, too, has an Armenian population.

Cyprus has been at loggerheads with Turkey for decades. Its ethnic Greek and Turkish Cypriot populations have lived estranged in the south and north respectively since 1974. Seeds of division were sown earlier when a power-sharing government crumbled amid violence in 1963.

Thursday's resolution was passed by Greek Cypriot lawmakers, who now make up the island's only internationally recognized parliament.

http://www.voanews.com/content/cyprus-c ... 05098.html

[Lordo]

presumably it only applies to the south right.

[GreekIslandGirl]

That's right, Lordo, don't worry. It applies only where human beings, with human feelings and morals, reside.

Thank you, Alectryon. God bless.

[Lordo]

That's right, Lordo, don't worry. It applies only where human beings, with human feelings and morals, reside.

Thank you, Alectryon. God bless.

you are right as per usual. it applies in the land fit for heroes. where innocent civilians were burnt alive, pregnant women stabbed with bayonets, 16 day old children burnt alive and not one criminal brought to justice. the land of heroes.

you only resemble humans and you are without humanity. your lack of humanity resembles one of picasso's abstract human forms.

[Alectryon]

you are right as per usual. it applies in the land fit for heroes. where innocent civilians were burnt alive, pregnant women stabbed with bayonets, 16 day old children burnt alive and not one criminal brought to justice. the land of heroes.

you only resemble humans and you are without humanity. your lack of humanity resembles one of picasso's abstract human forms.

Lordo, you might want to read up on the Armenian Genocide and Turkey's denial of it. Turkey admits that innocent Armenian civilians were "burnt alive, pregnant women stabbed with bayonets, 16 day old children burnt alive" but says the Ottoman government is not guilty of Genocide because the massacres were committed by uncontrollable criminal Turks and Kurds, not goverment agents. Why can't the Greek Cypriots use the same excuse ?

[Lordo]

if terggs committed such crimes in cyprus it would not be an excuse but a reason. the problem with that is the fact that the killers were gc and the victims were tc in cyprus. that is why they do not mention these killings. in fact they claimed the victims were gc killed by the terggs for decades knowing it was their soldiers that committed these crimes. to this day these murderers are free and have never been questioned about their crimes never mind taken to trial. this is a particular bitter pill to swallow as one of these murderers is allowed to teach children religion in a limasol school. this is how crooked the groc is and shall remain.

[Alectryon]

in fact they claimed the victims were gc killed by the terggs for decades knowing it was their soldiers that committed these crimes.

Can you confirm this fact with a link to a reputable book or an official GC website or UN report ?

[miltiades]

in fact they claimed the victims were gc killed by the terggs for decades knowing it was their soldiers that committed these crimes.

Can you confirm this fact with a link to a reputable book or an official GC website or UN report ?

Of course he cannot, the man is a complete and utter idiot, in fact he is ...fucking stupid !!

[Alectryon]

Miltiades, edit your post. Give him a chance to reply.

[Paphitis]

That's right, Lordo, don't worry. It applies only where human beings, with human feelings and morals, reside.

Thank you, Alectryon. God bless.

you are right as per usual. it applies in the land fit for heroes. where innocent civilians were burnt alive, pregnant women stabbed with bayonets, 16 day old children burnt alive and not one criminal brought to justice. the land of heroes.

you only resemble humans and you are without humanity. your lack of humanity resembles one of picasso's abstract human forms.

From 1958 till 1964, a total of 417 TCs were killed. Some were killed by the TMT itself. You know this very well.

Out of the 417, please tell us how many were bayoneted or burned alive.

If this is a genocide, then it is clear to me that the Greek Cypriots should stick to their day jobs.

There is a much larger murder tally in some cities within a single calender year.