[JURIST] A conference in Turkey on the alleged genocide of 1.5 Armenians [Wikipedia backgrounder] in the then-Ottoman Empire between 1915 and 1917 went ahead on Saturday despite a court ban that prompted protests from EU representatives [JURIST report] who saw it as casting a continuing shadow over Turkey's human rights record as it seeks EU membership. The court ruling was circumvented by having the conference venue changed to Bilgi University [university website], a private institution in Istanbul. The meeting, which continued Sunday, has infuriated Turkish nationalists who deny or minimize the killings, and has been problematic under Turkey's penal law which even in its recently-revised form [JURIST report] makes promoting certain interpretations of Turkish history a criminal offence. Aljazeera has more. From Istanbul, Hurriyet provides local coverage in English.