ISTANBUL. – An Istanbul court made a ruling on the lawsuit filed by Turkey’s main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) Chairman Kemal Kilicdaroglu, who had sued the author of the book entitled “Engineer Kemal: Son of Dersim Armenian [Woman] Yemus” and noted that a slander campaign was launched against him by way of ethnic identity.

The court, however, ruled that the harsh and crude expressions used in the book are within the parameters of freedom of speech specified by the European Convention on Human Rights, Istanbul’s Agos Armenian bilingual weekly reports.  

According to the ruling, the expressions used in the book do not jeopardize Kilicdaroglu’s political career and his professional and personal life.

To note, the aforesaid book was distributed in the Turkish parliament in February 2011, and it included offensive expressions against the CHP leader, and his mother’s being Armenian was portrayed from an offensive point of view. 

As a result, Kemal Kilicdaroglu had filed a claim for compensation and demanded that the court order the collection of the book’s copies from bookstores.