The Limited Times

Now you can see non-English news...

Calls for violence against the Armenian community: a pale activist in court

2020-09-17T20:31:51.553Z


On trial for calls for violence against the Armenian community near Lyon at the end of July, Ahmet Cetin denied belonging to the Gray Wolves.


"May the Turkish government give me 2000 euros and a weapon and I will do what needs to be done, anywhere in France!"

This sentence, broadcast on a video posted this summer on his Instagram account followed by some 7,000 subscribers, Ahmet Cetin deleted it.

He made it disappear since his indictment.

This Thursday this young Franco-Turkish 23-year-old resident in Bourg-en-Bresse (Ain) was brought to court for "incitement to violence or hatred" before the correctional court in his town.

At the bar of the court, this young married man, father of a family, who works as a maintenance agent, had great difficulty in explaining his intentions.

He refutes any membership in the organization of the Gray Wolves, this Turkish ultranationalist movement which appears anti-Kurdish and anti-Armenian.

He denies ever calling for a crackdown on the Armenian community gatherings.

However, on July 24, it was he who was identified and arrested at the head of a group of a hundred Turkish extremists brandishing iron bars and national flags, making with his fingers the sign of recognition of the Gray Wolves, firing mortars and ransacking shops near a gathering of the Armenian community of Décines, in the suburbs of Lyon.

Facts which should earn him new lawsuits before the Lyon court this time.

"My messages were misunderstood"

In the meantime, the Franco-Turkish explains that he is indeed "very much in demand by Turks from other cities for demonstrations", but not to follow up.

"I do not have the possibility of going to all the cities of France and my messages are not hateful, they were misunderstood by the Armenian community, I didn't want anything bad" he tries to convince in regretting being labeled "for years as a mobster and extremist on social networks".

In other publications on the Internet, Ahmet Cetin nevertheless urges his supporters not to go to demonstrations where Armenians outnumber Turks and to prefer the opposite situation.

When the lawyers of the civil parties, made up of the Committee for the Defense of the Armenian Cause and SOS-Racism ask him if the Armenian genocide existed, he strikes a "I am not a historian!"

When it is pointed out to him that he posted on Twitter "The Armenian genocide has never been proven", he retorts that "it was necessary to file a complaint for negationism".

When it comes to belonging to the Gray Wolves, it's a "No!"

Categorical.

"Targeting the Armenian community"

Ahmet Cetin says he has only one aspiration now, "to put his life back in a normal setting, to lead a family and professional life without political or militant activity".

As proof of his good faith, he claims to have deleted all his accounts on social networks.

For the public prosecutor however, "Ahmet Cetin denies the obvious, his messages targeting the Armenian community" and, "inviting everyone to take part in the confrontation and the fight".

He requested a six-month suspended prison sentence and a 2,000-euro fine.

For his lawyer Marie Audineau, who asks for his release, “he is not a Gray Wolf, he is not a terrorist.

I am simply defending everyone, who, by his Turkish origins, is aware of the debates between Turkish and Armenian communities, a man who is a victim of the runaway social networks.

"

Newsletter - Most of the news

Every morning, the news seen by Le Parisien

I'm registering

Your email address is collected by Le Parisien to enable you to receive our news and commercial offers.

Learn more

The decision will be made on November 5.

Source: leparis

All tech articles on 2020-09-17

You may like

News/Politics 2024-03-19T05:10:05.233Z

Trends 24h

Tech/Game 2024-03-27T18:05:36.686Z

Latest

© Communities 2019 - Privacy

The information on this site is from external sources that are not under our control.
The inclusion of any links does not necessarily imply a recommendation or endorse the views expressed within them.