Discussing with wolves

Submitted by Ianus (Poland), Jul 24, 2007 at 19:38

Dear Chris G., you write :

> Actually the majority of my Muslim friends are Turkish and they do not deny that many Armenians were killed, however they disagree on the exact numbers.

I know one Turk who said about the same issue : "It was complicated"...

Anyway, did your Turkish friends tell you about Article 301 of the Turkish Penal Code? I hope you know it.

The Turk I mentioned didn't tell me. He thought I was stupid enough not to know. I wasn't.

> These are very devout Turkish Muslims by the way.

Turkey is a "free" country, isn't it? 99% are Moslems.

> Recently a group of them actually participated in a conference between Turks and Armenians about the genocide. Sadly the majority of the Armenian academics invited either boycotted the conference or they were threatened not to attend by their local Armenian communities.

How do you know that ? From your devoutly Islamic Turkish friends who explained to you the liberality of the above mentioned Article in the Turkish Penal Code? (If you say in Turkey what is historically right but nationally wrong (=the truth) you get jailed for 3 years. If you say it abroad, you get jailed for four years. If you are unlucky you are not jailed. You are killed by some watchful 'grey wolf' ). I don't know what sort of discussions can be held with people living under such "laws" and approving of them? Perhaps you know?

Best,

Jan

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