Turkey's EU Affairs Minister Egemen Bağış commented on Swiss investigation launched into his remarks on the Armenian Genocide issue.

“Among the most important principles of the EU is free speech. The fact that some EU members have to pass a series of laws that restrict freedom of speech is illogical, this is contrary to the principles of the EU constitution that the members have adopted. I said in Zurich, I repeat here, and I will repeat elsewhere, that with our information, according to our records and our sources, it makes no sense… it’s illogical to call the 1915 events a Genocide,” Bağış said.

“We challenge Armenia and other countries to open their archives. That we create an independent commission in which we find Armenian historians, Russian, Turkish, European and American historians. That all these countries open their archives so that we can analyze what really happened in 1915. Thereafter we can assess the situation. This is an execution without trial. Calling the 1915 events a Genocide based solely on information we have right now, comes from a lobby that nurtures malicious hatred. We refuse to enter into their games,” Euronews quoted Turkish Minister as saying.

On February 6, a Zurich prosecutor launched an investigation into remarks by Bağış, after he said in Zurich that there was no Armenian Genocide and that Swiss authorities could arrest him if they wanted to.

Zurich State Prosecutor Christine Braunschweig was quoted as saying: “Last week we received a petition about this issue, informing us that Mr. Bağış violated the anti-racism Article 261 of the Swiss Penal Code. Our prosecutor's office has taken this allegation seriously and launched an investigation. We will investigate whether Egemen Bağış uttered words denying the Armenian Genocide as asserted in the petition. We will also see if he has diplomatic immunity. At the end of this, we will press charges against him if there indeed is a violation and if he cannot benefit from diplomatic immunity.”