Greeks Press Charges Over Turkish Flag Burnt In Armenian Demo

AFP
A prosecutor in the northern Greek city of Salonika has pressed charges against unidentified persons who burned a Turkish flag during a Greek-Armenian demonstration at the city's Turkish consulate last month, a local justice source said on Wednesday.

The charge of insulting the symbol of a foreign state will enable the perpetrators to be brought to justice should they be identified via photographs and video shot during the demonstration.

The incident occurred during an April 24 demonstration to mark the 92nd anniversary of massacres committed against Armenians by the Ottoman Empire during World War I. The Turkish consular authorities complained to Greece over the burning.

Greeks of Armenian descent annually hold demonstrations to press Turkey to admit guilt over the massacres.

Ankara says 300,000 Armenians, and at least as many Turks, died in civil strife when Armenians took up arms for independence and sided with invading Russian troops during World War I.

But Armenians claim up to 1.5 million of their ancestors were slaughtered in orchestrated killings that can only be seen as genocide. Greece's parliament adopted a resolution condemning the Armenian massacres as genocide in 1996.