YEREVAN. - It was not in the name of the freedom of speech that Dogu Pernicek denied the Armenian Genocide, Armenian Prosecutor General Gevorg Kostanyan said at the parliament Thursday.

“Apparently, Pernicek’s purpose is not to scientifically argue on whether the occurrence can be called a genocide. He makes his statements exceptionally to justify the activity of Talaat Pasha, one of the organizers of the Genocide. As to the clearly legal point of view, the European Court considered the extent to which such statements can incite animosity in the society. The impact of such statements would be quite different if voiced in Zimbabwe and the European community. The ECHR considered this,” Armenia’s Prosecutor General said.

In 2008, one of the courts in Switzerland filed a case against Turkey’s Labor Party leader Dogu Pernicek for denying the Armenian Genocide. Pernicek applied to the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR), which in December of the last year ruled for him in the case against Switzerland. Switzerland appealed the ECHR ruling, following which Armenia applied to the ECHR to appear as a third party to the case. Armenia will be represented by a well-know group of attorneys, including Amal Ramzi Clooney.