Blue Book Turkish Publishers to Stand Trial

PanARMENIAN.Net - Member of the Republican Party of Turkey, Turkish MP Sukur Elekdar brought a suit against the authors of the Turkish version of the Blue Book, the collection of documents of the annihilation of Armenians in Turkey. Elekdar asserts the introduction slanders him. The MP demands to amend the "moral damage" with $15 thousand. Besides, Elekdar raises a claim to author of the opening address Taner Akcam, over the article published in Bikirim Turkish magazine last year.



In the article Elekdar was criticized as one of the authors of the letter addressed to the British parliamentarians with a demand to refute the data published in the book. The authors of the Turkish version of the book - Umit Erdoglu, Taner Akcam and translator Ahmet Guner will stand trial May 30, 2006, reported IA Regnum with a reference to Bianet.



To note the Blue Book, formally knows as "Treatment of Armenians in the Ottoman Empire in 1915-1919" is a report heard by the British parliament in 1916. The document proves that the Armenian Genocide was planned.



Turkish MPs requested the House of Commons to "clarify the issue with the Blue Book". The UK Foreign Ministry in the person of Ambassador Peter Westmacott stated it refuses to discuss the address, since the "materials the book contains were not refuted and the authority of its authors cannot be doubted."