Expert: ECHR Grand Chamber's judgment on Perincek v. Switzerland case makes law on criminalization of Armenian Genocide denial senseless

 The judgment of the Grand Chamber of the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) has a positive wording that cannot be belittled. According to that wording, no one questions the fact of the Armenian Genocide, political expert Alexander Markarov said at a press conference in Yerevan on October 16. 

He noted that all judgments of the Court have both positive and negative aspects. "Certainly, such a judgment is unacceptable for Armenia, but the issue should be considered impartially, with due regard for international standards regulating the right to freedom of expression," he said.   

Markarov also thinks that no European country is likely to adopt a law criminalizing the denial of the Armenian Genocide after such a judgment of the ECHR, because any disputable issue will either pass the same way as the Perincek v. Switzerland case or will refer to this judgment.    

The expert is also convinced that the issues of criminalization of denial of the Holocaust and the Armenian Genocide will never be at the same level. "The judgment has already been delivered and today Armenia should draw the relevant conclusions and continue the fight for international recognition of the Armenian Genocide," he said. 

To recall, on October 15, the Grand Chamber of the European Court of Human Rights delivered a judgment on the case of Perincek v.  Switzerland. In the judgment "the European Court of Human Rights held, by a majority, that there had been: a violation of Article 10 (freedom of expression) of the European Convention on Human Rights. The case concerned the criminal conviction of a Turkish politician for publicly expressing the view, in Switzerland, that the mass deportations and massacres suffered by the Armenians in the Ottoman Empire in 1915 and the following years had not amounted to genocide. Being aware of the great importance attributed by the Armenian community to the question whether those mass deportations and massacres were to be regarded as genocide, the European Court of Human Rights held that the dignity of the victims and the dignity and identity of modernday Armenians were protected by Article 8 (right to respect for private life) of the Convention." "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," says the judgment.  

In 2007, the Swiss court convicted Dogu Perincek under Article 216 of the Criminal Code for denying the Armenian Genocide, subjecting him to financial and criminal liability. The Court of Appeals of Vaud Canton and the Federal Supreme Court had denied the appeal submitted against the given verdict. On December 17, 2013, the ECHR ruled in favor of Perincek's lawsuit that was filed against Switzerland, according to which Swiss courts had violated Perincek's right to freedom of speech. On March 11, Switzerland's Federal Office of Justice had informed that Switzerland was preparing to appeal to the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) with the demand for the Grand Chamber to reconsider Perincek's case. The ECHR had sent the case to the Grand Chamber prior to March 17. On August 25, Armenia filed an application to participate in the trial. Turkey had also filed an application to participate.

Armenia participated in the hearings as a third party. At the January 28 hearings, Perincek reaffirmed that he does not deny the mass killings of Armenia, but cannot qualify them as genocide. Amal Clooney, who is representing Armenia on behalf of Doughty Street Chambers along with Geoffrey Robertson QC, said Turkey's stance was hypocritical "because of its disgraceful record on freedom of expression", including prosecutions of Turkish-Armenians who campaign for the1915 massacres to be called a genocide. She said the verdict earlier adopted by the EHCR lower chamber in favor of Perincek was wrong, as the proofs and evidences of Turks' atrocities against Armenians show their genocidal intentions. The lawyer called the verdict of the ECHR lawyer chamber in favor of Perincek as a decision that profanes the memory for the Armenians massacred in the Ottoman Empire and supports the people who deny the Genocide.  To note, Switzerland not only recognized the Armenian Genocide but also adopted a law criminalizing the denial of the Armenian Genocide.