Doğu Perinçek

The Patriotic Party (VP) leader Doğu Perinçek on May 9 reached the required 100,000 signatures to be a presidential candidate and to qualify to run in the presidential elections on June 24.

Welcoming a ruling by the top European court of human rights, which said Switzerland had violated a Turkish politician?s right to freedom of speech by convicting him for denying the killing of Armenians by Ottoman Turks in 1915 amounted to genocide, Turkey has called the ruling ?an important turning point, as it provides a reply to the exploitation of history and law for political motives.?

The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) in Strasbourg ruled on Oct. 15 that Switzerland violated Turkish politician Do?u Perinçek?s right to freedom of speech.

The case concerned a fine imposed on Perinçek for a speech he gave in the country in which he denied that the mass deportation of Armenians in Anatolia in 1915 amounted to genocide.

Turkey's Supreme Court of Appeals has set the date for the first appeals hearing in the Ergenekon coup plot case, months after the Chief Prosecutor's Office asked for a reversal of the rulings in the case from a methodological perspective.

Turkey and Switzerland have never been best pals in the years preceding the 2000s. During the Justice and Development Party?s (AKP) rule, the relationship started having an inconsistent course with ups and downs. The Swiss parliament?s decision in 2003 to recognize the World War I Armenian tragedy as genocide despite government opposition was not appreciated by Turkey.

Years ago, Turkish politician Do?u Perinçek gave a number of conferences in Switzerland on the topic: ?Genocide in an imperialist lie.?

As a result, a Lausanne Police Court tried and found him guilty of racial discrimination on March 9, 2007, sentencing him to 120 days in prison before converting his prison term to a fine and postponing it.

Amal Ramzi Clooney, a prominent British-Lebanese lawyer, will be one of the attorneys representing Armenia next month at the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) in a key case regarding the deaths of Ottoman Armenians a hundred years ago, according to an Armenian news website.