European court says Turk had right to deny Armenia genocide

The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) in Strasbourg has ruled that Switzerland violated Dogu Perincek’s right to freedom of speech, Swissinfo reports.

The European Court announced its decision on Perinçek v. Switzerland case on October 15, 2015.

The ECHR said in making its ruling in favor of Dogu Perincek, chairman of the Turkish Patriotic Party, it had “to strike a balance” between two rights outlined in the European Convention on Human Rights: the right to freedom of expression (Article 10) and the respect for private life (Article 8), which protects dignity of the victims.

Perincek was convicted and fined in 2007 after a series of press conferences on the topic, which the ECHR ruled was an infringement on his right to free speech.

A Swiss Appeals Court subsequently confirmed Perincek’s sentence.

In 2013, the ECHR ruled in favour of Perincek, but Switzerland appealed the verdict, with Armenia requesting to join the lawsuit as a co-plaintiff.

“Punishing people in Europe because they say that there was no “Armenian genocide” is persecution of freedom of speech”.

The Republic of Armenia participated in the case in the status of a third party and was represented by Prosecutor-General Gevorg Kostanian.

By ten votes “for”, the ECHR voted for the permission of denial of the “Armenian genocide”, because it corresponds to freedom of speech.

From today, no court in the countries of the Council of Europe will be able to punish people who deny the validity of the so-called “Armenian genocide”, in other words, the Armenian point of view on the tragic events in the Ottoman Empire in 1915.

The Court declared that Armenians have “the right to respect for their and their ancestors’ dignity including their right to respect for their identity constructed around the understanding that their community has suffered genocide”.

Controversy erupted in April as Turkey held its 100-year commemorations of the Battle of Gallipoli on the same day as Armenia commemorated the 100-year anniversary of the Genocide.

“How the law was implemented in the Swiss case was the issue”, he said.

“Therefore, the criminalization of the Armenian Genocide and the criminal penalty is considered lawful”. The decision is a victory for Armenia.

Perincek’s lawyer Laurent Pech said his client denied that the Ottoman authorities of the time had a genocidal intention, but “neither contested nor defended the massacres, nor did he incite hatred against the Armenians. In this sense, of course, it can not but raise concerns”, he said.

“What objective is served here if not to divert world attention from the activities marking the centennial of the Armenian genocide?”

He also noted that, after the decision of the ECHR, Armenia also would be better to think about how to solve their economic problems. “We demand justice and good attitude towards ourselves from one model of civilization, but are under the influence of a totally different model of civilization. The fact that it happened is a shame, I think”, Ruben Safrastyan stated. The present worldwide consensus that the extermination of Armenians in 1915 constituted genocide is a historically self-evident fact, SAA said in a statement. Even though, he acknowledged that Turkey will try to use it. “I’m not saying it is positive or negative, because it would be very wrong to look at it from this standard”.