European Court Recognizes Right to Deny So-Called �Armenian Genocide�

Strasbourg / 26.10.17 / Turan: The European Court of Human Rights issued a verdict on the Perincek v. Switzerland resonance case last week. The court concluded that denying the so-called "Armenian genocide" is permissible within the framework of freedom of speech.

According to the ECHR website, the court ruled that the ban on denying the "Armenian genocide" in the Ottoman Empire in 1915 is a violation of Article 10 of the European Convention on Human Rights, where freedom of speech is guaranteed.

The case, which the ECHR considered, concerned the dispute between the Turkish politician, the leader of the Workers Party, Dogu Perincek, and the Swiss authorities.

In 2005 Perincek took part in several public events in Switzerland, in which he stated that the deportations and killings of the Armenian population in the Ottoman Empire in 1915 were not genocide.

Perincek"s words led to the initiation of a criminal case against him by the Swiss authorities and in 2007 he was sentenced to a fine.

Perincek challenged Switzerland"s decision in the ECHR, which took the side of the Turkish politician in 2013. After that, Switzerland appealed the decision of the ECHR, saying that denying the "Armenian genocide" means accusing Armenia of falsifying history. However, this did not help.

Recall that the so-called "genocide of Armenians" was first recognized by Uruguay in 1965, and then by about 20 states, including Russia, Canada, France, Great Britain, Germany, Brazil, Argentina, Australia, some of the US states, the Vatican, and the European Parliament. -02D-