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EUROPEAN COURT: DENYING ARMENIAN 'GENOCIDE' IS NO CRIME
Ha'aretz, Israel
Dec 18 2013
Judges draw distinction between Armenian case and the Holocaust of
the Jews.
By Ofer Aderet and Reuters
Denying that mass killings of Armenians in Ottoman Turkey in 1915 were
genocide is not a criminal offense, but denying the Jewish Holocaust
in World War II is, the European Court of Justice ruled on Tuesday
in a case involving Switzerland.
The court, which upholds the 47-nation European Convention on Human
Rights, said a Swiss law against genocide denial violated the principle
of freedom of expression.
The ruling has implications for other European states, such as France,
that have tried to criminalize the refusal to apply the term "genocide"
to the massacres of Armenians during the breakup of the Ottoman empire.
In 2007, a Swiss court in Lausanne convicted the leader of the leftist
Turkish Workers' Party, Dogu Perincek, of violating laws against
racism by denying the Armenian genocide. While speaking at a number
of conferences in Switzerland in 2005, Perincek had called talk of
an Armenian genocide "an international lie." Perincek appealed the
verdict twice in Swiss courts, but the conviction was upheld.
Eventually he took his case to the European Court of Justice.
Turkey accepts that many Armenians died in partisan fighting or from
hunger in 1915 and during several years after that, but denies that up
to 1.5 million were killed and that it constituted an act of genocide
-- a term used by many Western historians and foreign parliaments.
Genocide is "a very narrow legal concept" that is "difficult to
substantiate," the court said, adding, "Mr. Perincek had engaged in
speech of a historical, legal and political nature which was part of
a heated debate."
The court drew a distinction between the Armenian case and appeals it
has rejected against convictions for denying the Nazi German Holocaust
against the Jews during World War II.
"In those cases, the applicants had denied the historical facts even
though they were sometimes very concrete, such as the existence of
the gas chambers. They had denied the crimes perpetrated by the Nazi
regime for which there had been a clear legal basis. Lastly, the acts
that they had called into question had been found by an international
court to be clearly established."
The judges cited a 2012 ruling by France's Constitutional Council
which struck down a law enacted by the government of then-President
Nicolas Sarkozy as an unconstitutional violation of the right to
freedom of expression and freedom of research.
The ruling is binding for all European institutions and European
Union member states. The verdict will also affect France, where a
government-sponsored bill proposing to ban denial of the Armenian
Holocaust was rejected a year and a half ago. According to French
media, the present government is planning to resubmit the bill,
in an attempt to outlaw denial of the Armenian genocide.
Switzerland has three months to appeal against the ruling.
http://www.haaretz.com/news/world/1.564226
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress
Ha'aretz, Israel
Dec 18 2013
Judges draw distinction between Armenian case and the Holocaust of
the Jews.
By Ofer Aderet and Reuters
Denying that mass killings of Armenians in Ottoman Turkey in 1915 were
genocide is not a criminal offense, but denying the Jewish Holocaust
in World War II is, the European Court of Justice ruled on Tuesday
in a case involving Switzerland.
The court, which upholds the 47-nation European Convention on Human
Rights, said a Swiss law against genocide denial violated the principle
of freedom of expression.
The ruling has implications for other European states, such as France,
that have tried to criminalize the refusal to apply the term "genocide"
to the massacres of Armenians during the breakup of the Ottoman empire.
In 2007, a Swiss court in Lausanne convicted the leader of the leftist
Turkish Workers' Party, Dogu Perincek, of violating laws against
racism by denying the Armenian genocide. While speaking at a number
of conferences in Switzerland in 2005, Perincek had called talk of
an Armenian genocide "an international lie." Perincek appealed the
verdict twice in Swiss courts, but the conviction was upheld.
Eventually he took his case to the European Court of Justice.
Turkey accepts that many Armenians died in partisan fighting or from
hunger in 1915 and during several years after that, but denies that up
to 1.5 million were killed and that it constituted an act of genocide
-- a term used by many Western historians and foreign parliaments.
Genocide is "a very narrow legal concept" that is "difficult to
substantiate," the court said, adding, "Mr. Perincek had engaged in
speech of a historical, legal and political nature which was part of
a heated debate."
The court drew a distinction between the Armenian case and appeals it
has rejected against convictions for denying the Nazi German Holocaust
against the Jews during World War II.
"In those cases, the applicants had denied the historical facts even
though they were sometimes very concrete, such as the existence of
the gas chambers. They had denied the crimes perpetrated by the Nazi
regime for which there had been a clear legal basis. Lastly, the acts
that they had called into question had been found by an international
court to be clearly established."
The judges cited a 2012 ruling by France's Constitutional Council
which struck down a law enacted by the government of then-President
Nicolas Sarkozy as an unconstitutional violation of the right to
freedom of expression and freedom of research.
The ruling is binding for all European institutions and European
Union member states. The verdict will also affect France, where a
government-sponsored bill proposing to ban denial of the Armenian
Holocaust was rejected a year and a half ago. According to French
media, the present government is planning to resubmit the bill,
in an attempt to outlaw denial of the Armenian genocide.
Switzerland has three months to appeal against the ruling.
http://www.haaretz.com/news/world/1.564226
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress