By Victoria Hines
On October 15, the
European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) ruled that
Switzerland violated a Turkish politician’s right to freedom of speech by
convicting him for denying the Armenian genocide. The Perincek v. Switzerland case was brought to the ECHR following a 2007 Swiss court decision that fined Perincek for his public
statements calling the Armenian Genocide an “international lie.” Amal Clooney,
who represented Armenia as a third party in the case, proclaimed this decision
was actually a victory for Armenia because the Court found that the lower
court’s characterization of the genocide as doubtful, was inappropriate.
Moreover, seven of the Court’s judges proclaimed that the genocide is a clearly
established historical fact.
