Amal Clooney accuses Turkey of double standards on freedom of expression in Armenian genocide hearing
Human rights lawyer tells ECHR: ‘This court knows very well how disgraceful Turkey’s record on freedom of expression is’
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Your support makes all the difference.Amal Clooney has accused Turkey of having double standards over freedom of expression for defending a man accused of denying the Armenian genocide.
On Wednesday, the human rights lawyer and Geoffrey Robertson QC stood before Europe's top human rights court to represent Armenia in their case against Doğu Perinçek, the leader of the Turkish Workers’ Party.
Perinçek was convicted of denying the 2015 Armenian genocide in 2007 after comments he made in 2005 where he said the legal definition of Armenian genocide was an “international lie”.
His conviction was later overturned following an appeal at the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR), who ruled his right to free speech had been violated. Turkey was a co-defendant in that case.
Arguing against the appeal in Strasbourg on Tuesday, Ms Clooney said the judge’s decision was “simply wrong”.
“It cast doubt of the reality of genocide that Armenian people suffered a century ago,” she was quoted as saying by The Telegraph.
Ms Clooney stressed that Armenia did not want to prohibit free speech, saying: “Armenia is not here to argue against freedom of expression anymore than Turkey is here to defend it. This court knows very well how disgraceful Turkey’s record on freedom of expression is,” she said.
Perinçek denied having any motivation to incite hatred against Armenians, claiming he “shares the pain of Armenian citizens”.
Giving evidence to the court, he said: “You cannot find a word of mine that expresses antagonism against them. I hold the great powers responsible for what happened in 1915. There should be no taboos for the right to speak.”
Wednesday’s hearing lasted for more than two hours. A decision will be announced at a later date.
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