Armenian, Assyrian and Hellenic Genocide News

Turkish court finds Assyrian priest not guilty of fomenting hatred
by Deutsche Presse-Agentur, April 5, 2001
Posted: Wednesday, April 11, 2001 03:05 am CST

An Assyrian priest was found not guilty by a state security court on Thursday of attempting to "create hatred and enmity on the basis of religion, language and race" over comments in which he was alleged to have said Assyrians had been massacred along with Armenians by Ottoman troops during and after World War I.

Father Yusuf Akbulut, priest at the Diyarbakir Assyrian Virgin Mary Church, was arrested last year for his allegedly anti-Turkish statements just as the U.S. Congress was about to vote on a resolution that would have defined the massacres of Armenians in the early part of the last century as a genocide.

"Not only Armenians but also Assyrians were massacred, and the Kurds were used in the massacres," Father Akbulut was alleged to have said.

The court found Akbulut not guilty after even the prosecutor said he was of the opinion that the priest's statements could not be defined as creating a danger.

The verdict was applauded by observers at the trial, including German and Swedish members of parliament.

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