"Denial" probe for Bagis

An investigation has been launched for EU Minister Egemen Bagis due to his remarks in Zurich against the French law that makes it criminal to deny Armenian claims. "Switzerland is another country, where it is a crime to deny the so-called genocide. Here I am in Switzerland today, and I'm saying the 1915 incidents did not amount to genocide. Let them come arrest me," Bagis stated in Zurich on January 28, while he criticizes the new French law. After applications from Armenians living in Zurich, a prosecutor launched an investigation against Bagis. In response, Undersecretary of Foreign Ministry Feridun Sinirlioglu called Switzerland's Ankara Ambassador Raimund Kunz to ask for an explanation on the issue. Sinirlioglu said to the ambassador that it was unacceptable. "Is a minister of an independent state incapable of expressing his opinion?" asked Deputy Prime Minister Bekir Bozdag in his speech at the Justice and Development Party's (AKP) central executive board meeting. "The Zurich prosecutor went too far launching an investigation into a minister of the Republic of Turkey who stated his opinion while using freedom of speech," said Omer Celik, deputy chairman of AKP.