15 October 2015•Update: 15 October 2015
STRASBOURG, France
The European Court of Human Rights has said a Turkish politician who denied Armenian ‘genocide’ allegations had his right to freedom of expression breached.
The case, referred last year to the ECHR, concerns Dogu Perincek, chairman of the Turkish Patriotic Party.
Perincek had been found guilty of racial discrimination in Switzerland for describing the Armenian deaths as an "international lie".
On Thursday, the ECHR decided by a majority that there had been a violation of Article 10 (freedom of expression) of the European Convention on Human Rights.
"The Court concluded that it had not been necessary, in a democratic society, to subject Mr. Perincek to a criminal penalty in order to protect the rights of the Armenian community at stake in the case," read the ruling.
In the events that led to the present case, Perincek, at various conferences in Switzerland in 2005, rejected allegations that the events of 1915 and the following years in the Ottoman Empire amounted to "genocide" of the Armenian people.
The Switzerland-Armenia Association filed a criminal complaint against him. Perincek was tried by the Lausanne Police Court in March 2007, found guilty of racial discrimination, and fined.
A Swiss Appeals Court subsequently confirmed Perincek's sentence. Perincek then appealed to the Federal Tribunal, the highest court in Switzerland, which also confirmed the sentence.
In 2008, Perincek appealed to the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg, claiming that the Swiss courts had violated his rights, including that to freedom of expression.
Many Armenians argue that denying allegations that the events of 1915 constituted "genocide" should be a crime, just as negating the Holocaust is. In 2003, the National Council of Switzerland, the country's parliament, recognized the events of 1915 as "genocide."
The 1915 events occurred during World War I when a part of the Armenian population living in the Ottoman Empire sided with the invading Russians and revolted.
The relocation of Armenians by the Ottomans in eastern Anatolia following the revolts resulted in numerous casualties.
Turkey does not dispute that there were casualties on both sides, but rejects calling the events “genocide.” Instead, it calls for a joint commission of historians to be established and archives to be opened in order to study and uncover what happened between the Ottoman Empire and its Armenian citizens.
