European Armenian Federation for Justice & Democracy welcomed the judgment delivered by the European Court of Human Rights in the case Perincek v Switzerland.

The Grand Chamber changed the previous decision of the judges, ruling that the issue of genocide is not a matter to be discussed at ECHR, EAFJD communication officer Bedo Demirdjian told reporters.

It is important that ECHR specified that dignity of the Armenians should be protected, Demirdjian said, adding that in this context the decision is welcomed.

Earlier ECHR ruled there had been a violation of Article 10 (freedom of expression) of the European Convention on Human Rights, thus the petition filed by Switzerland was rejected.

The ECHR Grand Chamber judgment also specifically states: “As regards the scope of the case, the Court underlined that it 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 could be characterised as genocide within the meaning of that term under international law; unlike the international criminal courts, it had no authority to make legally binding pronouncements on this point.”