Russian party seeks ‘accountability for Armenian genocide denial’

MOSCOW

AFP photo

A Russian opposition leader, Sergei Mironov, said on Nov. 25 that his party had submitted a bill to the Russian parliament on holding to account anyone who denies that the 1915 killings of Armenians by the Ottoman Empire “was genocide.” 

"We have just submitted a bill on responsibility for failure to acknowledge the fact of a genocide of Armenians by Turkey in 1915," Mironov, the leader of the opposition Just Russia party, said via his Twitter account.

His statement came a day after the Turkish air forces shot down a Russian jet, escalating tensions between Ankara and Moscow. 

The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) in Strasbourg ruled on Oct. 15 that Switzerland had violated Turkish politician Doğu Perinçek’s right to freedom of speech, after he was fined for denying in a speech that the killing of Anatolian Armenians in 1915 amounted to genocide.

In its ruling, the 17-judge ECHR Grand Chamber “concluded that it had not been necessary, in a democratic society, to subject Mr. Perinçek to a criminal penalty in order to protect the rights of the Armenian community at stake in the case.”