YEREVAN, MAY 31, ARMENPRESS. The Istanbul prosecution has dropped charges against protesters who were demonstrating with posters saying : “Armenian Genocide” on April 24 – the Armenian Genocide commemoration day – in an Istanbul square, Agos reports.

The commemoration event was planned by the Istanbul office of the Turkish Human Rights Association. But Istanbul police banned the event because the demonstrators had raised posters saying: “Armenian Genocide”.

Three demonstrators who brought the posters to the square were detained and subsequently released by police.

The investigation into the case was completed recently and the prosecution ruled that it has insufficient evidence for proceedings, thus dropping the case.

It is noteworthy that the prosecution has cited ECHR judgments in its decision, stressing that the definition of freedom of speech includes also terms which are deemed undesirable for a given segment of the population or the state.

The judgment of dropping the case also mentioned that “the protesters didn’t seek to publicly mock the Turkish nation”. The move implies that using the term Armenian Genocide isn’t a crime in Turkey anymore.

Anyone speaking out about the Armenian Genocide has been subjected to persecution by Turkish authorities for many years. Turkey uses its infamous  Article 301 of the Criminal Code for oppressing anyone trying to speak about the truth on the matter.

The article sets criminal liability for “insulting Turkishness”.

English –translator/editor: Stepan Kocharyan