YEREVAN (YERKIR) – A civil court in Belgium has returned a verdict finding Emir Kir (Socialist Party), the State Secretary of the Brussels region of Belgium, a “liar,” and “denier” in connection with his statements and actions concerning the Armenian Genocide. Kir has said that he will appeal the verdict.
The court proceedings began after Kir lodged a complaint against the administrators of a website www.suffrage-universel.be, Messrs Mehmet Koksal and Pierre-Yves Lambert, on the grounds that the website misrepresented him.
The accusations included the charge that Kir had falsely claimed to have an educational degree, that he had taken liberties with the law on electoral expenses, that he had taken part in demonstrations denying the Armenian Genocide, and that he had articulated positions denying this crime against humanity. The finding against Kir confirms that Armenian Genocide denial is not protected freedom of _expression, but rather a profound moral outrage which can be denounced as such.
The Court found that the authors of the website were “by no means wrong” in applying the “denier” characterization to Kir, and went on to note that this type of clear labeling of deniers serves the common good and advances the purposes established by Belgian law to penalize Armenian Genocide denial.
“This verdict could not be more timely – coming as it does at the moment
when Ankara is launching legal actions around the world against public and private institutions that teach truthfully about the Armenian Genocide,” said Laurent Leylekian, the Executive Director of the European Armenian Federation.
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