Gray Wolves Threatening Turkish Human Rights Defenders for April 24 Commemoration

Human rights defenders are being scared in Turkey for paying tribute to the memory of the victims of the Armenian Genocide in the break up of Ottoman Empire in 1915.

Representatives of the Istanbul branch of Union for Human Rights Defense are being threatened to death by representatives of Turkish nationalist circles for having organized a commemoration of the victims of the Armenian Genocide on the central square in Istanbul on April 24, reports Turkish Firat news agency.

In an interview with Firat Secretary of the Union for Human Rights Defense Baki Bogan said they were receiving e-mails verbally assaulting them and threatening to kill them.

“Last year too we made a statement over the Genocide and received threatening e-mails. But this year the number of threats has multiplied,” said Bogan, adding they were planning to lodge a complaint against the sender of those e-mails.

“We have not explored the source of those e-mails yet. But it can definitely be said that their content corresponds to the ideas of the extremist organization Gray Wolves,” said Bogan, adding that what happened in 1915 constituted Genocide.

“More than 1 million people died during the Genocide. It does not matter whether the Turks or the Kurds perpetrated those killings. What does matter is that it was implemented upon specific instructions by the state,” concluded Bogan.