Yerevan /Mediamax/. In today’s Grand Chamber judgment in the case of "Perincek v. Switzerland”, the European Court of Human Rights decided, by a majority, that there had been a violation of Article 10 (freedom of expression) of the European Convention on Human Rights.

In March 2007, Turkish nationalist Dogu Perincek was accused of denying the Armenian Genocide in Switzerland. He called the Genocide “an international lie” for which Switzerland-Armenia Association sued him over racism.

The judgment reads that as Armenians were protected by Article 8 (right to respect for private life) of the European Convention on Human Rights, “the Court therefore had to strike a balance between two Convention rights – the right to freedom of expression and the right to respect for private life –, taking into account the specific circumstances  of the case and the proportionality between the means used and the aim sought to be achieved”.

At the same time, the judgment notes:

“As regards the scope of the case, the Court underlined that it was not required to determine

whether the massacres and mass deportations suffered by the Armenian people at the hands of the Ottoman Empire from 1915 onwards could be characterized as genocide within the meaning of that term under international law; unlike the international criminal courts, it had no authority to make legally binding pronouncements on this point”.

Since 2014, Armenia has been involved in “Perincek v Switzerland” case as a third party. Armenia’s interests at the ECHR were protected by barristers Amal Clooney and Jeffrey Robertson.

In March 2014, Mediamax wrote in detail about Perincek v Switzerland case and its possible ramifications for Armenia.