ECHR ruling: Armenian Genocide denial not a crime?

PanARMENIAN.Net - The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) ruled Dec 17 that denial of the 1915 mass killings of Armenians as genocide falls under freedom of expression, following an appeal from a Turkish politician to his conviction in Switzerland, Asbarez reported citing Turkish media.

Turkish Workers’ Party (İP) Chairman Dogu Perincek, who had described the Armenian Genocide as an “international lie,” had complained that Swiss courts had breached his freedom of expression, based on Article 10 covering freedom of expression.

The ECHR ruling stated that “the free exercise of the right to openly discuss questions of a sensitive and controversial nature is one of the fundamental aspects of freedom of expression and distinguishes a tolerant and pluralistic democratic society from a totalitarian or dictatorial regime.”

“The December 17 decision by the European Court of Human Rights must be condemned because it opens the door to the spread of hatred under the veil of ‘freedom of expression,’ and can be deemed as a sad example of Armenian Genocide denial,” said a statement from the Political Affairs Office of the Armenian Revolutionary Federation.

“The fact that the court’s decision was not unanimous, signals that there is legal room to advance and change the decision. We must direct our efforts to that end,” added the ARF statement.

Meanwhile the Armenian National Committee offices in Europe, in conjunction with the European Armenian Federation for Justice and Democracy (ANC of Europe) are working with European legal officials on the matter and will issue relevant statements and actions items as they become available.

The original case emerged from Perincek’s participation in a number of conferences in Switzerland in 2005, during which he publicly denied that the Ottoman Empire had perpetrated the crime of genocide against the Armenian people in 1915.

The Lausanne Police Court found Perincek guilty of racial discrimination on March 9, 2007, based on the Swiss Criminal Code. After a complaint filed by the Switzerland-Armenia Association on July 15, 2005, the court found that Perincek’s motives were of a “racist tendency” and did not contribute to the historical debate.