Yusuf Akbulut - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

Yusuf Akbulut is a Syriac Orthodox priest

Priest

A priest is a person authorized to perform the sacred rites of a religion, especially as a mediatory agent between humans and deities. They also have the authority or power to administer religious rites; in particular, rites of sacrifice to, and propitiation of, a deity or deities...

from St. Mary's Church in Diyarbakır

Diyarbakır

Diyarbakır is one of the largest cities in southeastern Turkey...

, Turkey

Turkey

Turkey , known officially as the Republic of Turkey , is a Eurasian country located in Western Asia and in East Thrace in Southeastern Europe...

.
He was arrested by Turkish authorities after stating in a newspaper interview that he believed Armenians

Armenian Genocide

The Armenian Genocide—also known as the Armenian Holocaust, the Armenian Massacres and, by Armenians, as the Great Crime—refers to the deliberate and systematic destruction of the Armenian population of the Ottoman Empire during and just after World War I...

, Assyrians/Syriacs

Assyrian genocide

The Assyrian Genocide refers to the mass slaughter of the Assyrian/Chaldean/Syriac population of the Ottoman Empire during the 1890s, the First World War, and the period of 1922-1925...

and Greeks were the victims of a genocide

Genocide

Genocide is defined as "the deliberate and systematic destruction, in whole or in part, of an ethnic, racial, religious, or national group", though what constitutes enough of a "part" to qualify as genocide has been subject to much debate by legal scholars...

by the Ottoman Empire

Ottoman Empire

The Ottoman EmpireIt was usually referred to as the "Ottoman Empire", the "Turkish Empire", the "Ottoman Caliphate" or more commonly "Turkey" by its contemporaries...

.

A native of Anıtlı (Hah), a village in Midyat

Midyat

Midyat is an originally Assyrian/Syriac town in Mardin Province of Turkey. The ancient city is the epicenter of a centuries-old Assyrian/Syriac enclave in Southeast-Turkey, widely familiar under its Syriac name Tur Abdin. A cognate of the name Midyat is first encountered in an inscription of the...

district, Father Yusuf Akbulut was approached in October 2000 by reporters from the Turkish newspaper Hürriyet
Hürriyet
-External links:* * ** * *...

and questioned as to his views regarding the Armenian Genocide

Armenian Genocide

. Father Akbulut responded that not only Armenians but Assyrians/Syriacs were also massacred and, as a direct consequence of his response being made public, he was arrested and charged with inciting racial hatred. He was released after Turkey came under pressure from human rights

Human rights

Human rights are "commonly understood as inalienable fundamental rights to which a person is inherently entitled simply because she or he is a human being." Human rights are thus conceived as universal and egalitarian . These rights may exist as natural rights or as legal rights, in both national...

groups.

See also