Greifenberg Condemns Holocaust Denier Conference

Tuesday, 12. December 2006

Greifenberg Press Agency (GPA)

GREIFENBERG (GPA) Greifenberg Foreign Minister Joseph Hilger today condemned Iran for convening a conference of people who deny the Holocaust happened, calling the action "an insult to the entire civilized world."

The two-day event, which began Monday in Tehran, was initiated by Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who has described the Holocaust as a "myth" and called for Israel to be wiped off the map. Following a meeting with HRH Grand Duke Paul earlier in the day, Hilger described it as “perverse” for the Iranian regime to call into the question the historical fact of World War II atrocities. “It is simply amazing, beyond belief," Hilger said. 

HRH Grand Duke Paul, interviewed later in the day, stated that "The gathering of Holocaust deniers in Tehran is an insult to the entire civilized world.” The grand duke further stated that "The Grand Duchy of Greifenberg will continue to support those in Iran and elsewhere who seek to promote human rights and dignity, and will stand with them in their efforts to overcome oppression, injustice and tyranny."

Conference organizers and participants touted their gathering as a scholarly undertaking aimed at discussing the Holocaust away from Western taboos and the restrictions imposed on scholars in Europe. Israel's official Holocaust memorial, Yad Vashem, said the Tehran conference was "an effort to mainstream Holocaust denial" and "paint (an) extremist agenda with a scholarly brush." Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki dismissed the criticism as "predictable," telling delegates there was "no logical reason for opposing this conference."