Doğu Perinçek is a Turkish politician, activist, and member of the Talat Pasha Committee, an ultranationalist organization named after the main perpetrator of the Armenian genocide.
The free exercise of this right is one of the fundamental aspects of freedom of expression and distinguishes a democratic, tolerant and pluralist society from a totalitarian or dictatorial regime.
The Court doubted that there could be a general consensus as to events such as those at issue, given that historical research was by definition open to discussion and a matter of debate, without necessarily giving rise to final conclusions or to the assertion of objective and absolute truths.
The Grand Chamber judgment states multiple times that the applicant did not express contempt or hatred for the victims of the events of 1915 and the following years.
The judgement further noted that, inter alia, Perinçek's statements were aimed not at the Armenian community but "the ‘imperialists’ whom he regarded as responsible for the atrocities.
[18] 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.
In the rest of their joint dissenting opinion, they detailed why they were unable to follow the majority's approach as regards the assessment of the applicant's statements.
[19] In an official statement, the Turkish Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced that the outcome of the case was "a very strong signal against all efforts imposing the “genocide” allegation as the only and absolute truth along with attempts and practices which even forbid questioning it "[20] The Global Freedom of Expression initiative at Columbia University characterized the ruling as expanding freedom of expression.
[23][24][25][26] Shant N. Nashalian stated that the court ignored that Perinçek "seemingly intended to further spread the Turkish program of denial and suppression throughout the world, thus perpetuating the Young Turks' and Atatürk's destructive and repressive ideology still present in Turkey today".
[28] Perinçek and the Talat Pasha Committee misrepresented the verdict to claim that the court put an end to the "hundred year-old genocide lie".