[11] In 1968 he was elected president of the Federation of Debate Clubs (Fikir Kulüpleri Federasyonu, later Dev-Genç), a group of left-wing youth, and adopted a pro-Chinese, pro-Mao Zedong stance.

[11] In 1991, while he was editor-in-chief of 2000'e Doğru, he went to Lebanon to meet with Abdullah Öcalan, the leader of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK).

[20] Despite being associated with Maoism for a long time, the Patriotic Party has said that he isn't a Maoist, instead saying that he embraced "Mao's contributions to the literature of the world revolution and scientific socialism" and "adapted them to Turkey's conditions".

[23][24] During an interview with Xinhua News Agency in 2017, he praised the leadership of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and stated that "China today represents hope for the whole humanity".

[25] He has strongly opposed the Turkish intervention in Syria and actively promoted better ties with president Bashar al-Assad and his government,[26] personally meeting Assad in Damascus in 2015.

[28] Perinçek openly supported Vladimir Putin and the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine,[29][30] saying that "it is the weapon that Russia is currently using that brings peace and tranquility".

[30] In 2007, a ruling by a Swiss court made him the first person to receive a criminal conviction for denial of the Armenian genocide.

[35] In December 2013 the European Court of Human Rights ruled that Switzerland violated the principle of freedom of expression.

The court said that "Mr Perincek was making a speech of a historical, legal and political nature in a contradictory debate".

The judgment did not dispute the fact of the Armenian genocide and recognised Armenians' right under European law to have their dignity respected and protected, including the recognition of a communal identity forged through suffering following the annihilation of more than half their race by the Ottoman Turks.

[40] The Grand Chamber also made clear that the court 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 can be characterised as genocide within the meaning of that term under international law.

Furthermore, 7 judges, including then-President of the European Court of Human Rights Dean Spielmann stated in their dissenting opinion that it is self-evident that the massacres and deportations suffered by the Armenian people constituted genocide and that the Armenian genocide is a clearly established historical fact.