The Ankara Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office has declined to prosecute people who have signed an Internet campaign apologising to “our Armenian brothers and sisters” for the events of 1915 that took place in the Ottoman Empire.

According to the prosecution, “even opposite opinions are protected under the concept of freedom of expression in democratic societies.”

Attempt to prosecute under Article 301

Ankara residents Hasan Hüseyin Satır, Sabahat Özgür, Mehmet İnal Kolburan, Hüseyin Erdoğan, Serdar Orhaner and Kürşat Karacabey had prepared a complaints campaign and had demanded the trial of the signatories of the apology campaign for “denigrating the Turkish nation”.

The apology campaign has attracted over 28,000 signatures so far. The English translation of the text reads:

“My conscience does not accept the insensitivity showed to and the denial of the Great Catastrophe that the Ottoman Armenians were subjected to in 1915. I reject this injustice and for my share, I empathize with the feelings and pain of my Armenian brothers and sisters. I apologize to them.” (TK/AG)