The requirements set by the RA Government in case of Perincek v. Switzerland were fully satisfied by the European Court, the Armenian Prosecutor General’s Office said in a statement.
In a judgment delivered today the European Court said Switzerland had violated Turkish politician Dogu Perincek’s right to freedom of speech by convicting him for denying that the killing of Armenians by Ottoman Turks in 1915 amounted to genocide.
Armenia was involved in the case as a third party. “By intervening in the case as a third party, the Republic of Armenia expected the European Court to exclude all kind of wording that would in any way question the fact of the Armenian Genocide,” the statement reads.
“In the judgment delivered today the European Court underlined that it was neither required to answer that question, nor did it have the authority to make legally binding pronouncements on whether the 1915 mass killing and deportation of Armenians in the Ottoman Empire amounted to genocide as defined by international law,” the Prosecutor General’s Office said.
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.”
Finally, as regards the Perincek case, the Court ruled that subjecting him to criminal penalty did not fully contradict the European case law. Instead, it confirmed that the Swiss law had been applied wrongly.
“Therefore, the criminalization of the Armenian Genocide and the criminal penalty is considered lawful. However, this should be done exceptionally in compliance with the European Convention on Human Rights,” the Armenian Prosecutor General’s Office said.
“Thus, all requirements set by the Armenian Government in case of Perincek v. Switzerland were fully satisfied by the European Court,” the statement concluded.
