·  Defying a court ban, panelists discuss the mass killings of the WWI era. Western observers hail the talks; protesters throw eggs.

By Amberin Zaman, Special to The Times

ISTANBUL, Turkey — A controversial conference on the mass killings of ethnic Armenians during the last days of the Ottoman Empire opened here Saturday amid heavy security in defiance of a court ban.

The forum was hailed by participants and Western observers as a groundbreaking event where Turkish academics could for the first time publicly challenge their country’s official version of the events leading to the slaughter of Armenians.

Hundreds of protesters waving Turkish flags pelted the arriving panelists with eggs and rotten tomatoes, expressing the fury felt by many Turks over efforts to open their country’s painful past to debate.

“The aim [of the conference] … is to declare Turkey guilty of genocide,” said Erkan Onsel, local head of the small left-wing Turkey‘s Workers Party.

The conference had been canceled twice, most recently on Thursday, when an Istanbul court ruled in favor of a group of lawyers who opposed the gathering on procedural grounds.

Turkey‘s reformist prime minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, harshly condemned the ruling, saying it was timed to undermine the country’s efforts to join the European Union. Turkey is scheduled to open long-awaited talks with the EU on Oct. 3.

“I want to live in a Turkey where freedoms are enjoyed in their broadest sense,” Erdogan told reporters Saturday.

His words were echoed by Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul, who sent a letter of support to the conference. He earlier said the cancellation was a further example of how “Turks are so good at shooting themselves in the foot.”

Emotions ran high among a packed audience of academics, journalists and diplomats as panelists deconstructed Turkey’s official explanation of how the country’s once-thriving Armenian population, estimated at more than 1 million in the early 20th century, was reduced to its current level of 80,000.

More than a million Armenians were killed in a campaign launched in 1915 by forces of the Ottoman Empire, which became the modern republic of Turkey. The government continues to dispute the view that a genocide took place. It says several hundred thousand Armenians died of exposure, disease and attacks from brigands as they journeyed south to Syria after being deported for collaborating with invading Russian troops.

Most speakers took a cautious tone, saying the purpose of the conference was not to del