Denying the Armenian Genocide in International and European Law

Abstract

Several international and European legal instruments, both binding and non-binding, call on or allow for the criminalization of speech that denies, condones or minimizes international crimes. The aim of this essay is to verify the extent of those instruments, particularly the definitions of punishable behaviours and the identification of the object/target of such behaviours, with a view to ascertain whether the instruments apply to the Armenian massacres of 1915–1916.