A lawsuit was filed against Agos newspaper, known as the media organ of Armenians in Türkiye, and some leftist media outlets in the country, against Human Rights Association Co-chair Eren Keskin and Commission Against Racism and Discrimination member Gülistan Yarkin, on the allegation of "insulting the state" (Article 301). They insistently distort the incident and bring it to the commemoration program held on the anniversary of the so-called Armenian Genocide.

Faktyoxla Lab. has investigated whether Eren Keskin and Gülistan Yarkin were actually tried for holding a meeting to commemorate the so-called Armenian genocide.

First of all, at the time of our research, the co-chair of the association, Eren, was making the April 24 so-called Armenian Genocide statement, which has been made by the Human Rights Association (IHD) and the Commission Against Racism and Discrimination in Sultanahmet in Istanbul since 2005, at the association's office in Beyoglu in 2021. We have determined that Keskin, in her speech, stated that "Genocide is, above all, the most massive human rights violation committed by the state" and that she unfairly blamed the Republic of Türkiye on the basis of these so-called genocide allegations.

She conducted her speech by saying, “The demands, requests and wishes of the Armenians, who were separated from their homeland as a result of the genocide and dispersed all over the world, for compensation for the losses they suffered, which are too great to be counted, should be responded to. Denial is also an obstacle to such a process of compensation and justice. That's why we've been making a call for years: Genocide, Recognize, Forgive, Reparate!” Lawyer Eren Keskin, without changing her attitude and rhetoric, did not forget to insult the state again on February 27, at the Istanbul 51st Criminal Court of First Instance. Keskin said at the hearing: “On April 24, 1915, around 200 Armenian intellectuals were detained and they were never heard from again. This was initiated by the Committee of Union and Progress, which constitutes the state mind of Türkiye today. This official ideology is a problematic ideology. I do not accept this official ideology that ignores other identities.”

Eren, who has always claimed that the Republic of Türkiye is not a 'state of law', had previously said in a speech she gave in Cologne, Germany in 2002 that she "insulted the moral personality of the Turkish Armed Forces" due to her allegations that the state used the security units. She was sentenced to 10 months in prison in 2006 for this reason. According to what she said, so far, she has been tried in 143 cases for articles whose contents she does not even know.

If we add to this process that she is the co-editor-in-chief of the Özgür Gündem newspaper, the publication of the closed PKK, we will see with our own eyes that the situation has become even worse. Keskin, who received the award when she was deemed worthy of the Orhan Dogan Peace Prize organized by the Turkish Peace Assembly in 2014, gave this award to the Armenian novelist Zabel Esayan, who is constantly alleged to be a victim of the so-called Armenian genocide, and one of the founders of the PKK, codename "Sara". She dedicated it to the terrorist known as Sakine Cansiz. (source)

In the same year, at the April 24 so-called Armenian Genocide "commemoration meeting of the victims" in Taksim, Lawyer Eren Keskin took the floor, read the names of Armenian villages in Türkiye, and made an irrelevant claim: "Armenians no longer live in these villages."

In 2015, the Human Rights Association (IHD), of which Eren Keskin is the co-chair, made a call to world leaders through its official website, "This is our Call to World Leaders: Don't Come to Canakkale on April 24, Go to Yerevan to the Genocide Monument!" By saying this, she committed yet another act of hostility towards the Turkish state. In the same statement, "The Gallipoli wars, which Türkiye presented as a "victory" and celebrated with ceremonies, were actually one of the mournful pages of a war of division in which the Ottoman Empire participated with the dream of new conquests and emerged with a heavy defeat. "It is a part of the painful history of humanity that children of distant geographies died while killing each other for the sake of state policies." Then, the facts were seriously distorted by claiming that April 24 was the date symbolizing the beginning of the Armenian genocide all over the world. (source)

During our research, Eren Keskin, who said that she investigated the so-called genocide allegations after learning that her aunt was Armenian, and who proudly stated that her name was among those who acknowledged the genocide on the genocide monument in Armenia, constantly stated that they lived in the geography of genocide in Türkiye and that torture always continues to exist. We also learned that she was deemed worthy of the Hrant Dink Award, distributed by the Hrant Dink Foundation in 2017. Thanking Hrant Dink at the award ceremony, Eren Keskin stated that she would continue to speak the truth with the same courage and love from now on. Of course, what is meant by the truth must be to organize meetings every year on April 24, known as the commemoration day of the so-called Armenian genocide, and to present the Republic of Türkiye as 'a republic founded by the mentality that committed the genocide.'

Conclusion:

- Eren Keskin's trial under the article of "insulting the state" has nothing to do with the commemoration program held on the anniversary of the so-called Armenian Genocide,

- Eren Keskin publicly humiliated and insulted the state of the Republic of Türkiye both when she was the Co-Chair of the Human Rights Association (IHD) and many times before.

- Eren Keskin, who described the state as genocidal and stated that it was and could never be a state of law, actually revealed her true identity by dedicating the awards she received to the so-called separatist leaders and the so-called victims of genocide.

- Considering her actions that we have mentioned, associating the case filed with the allegation of "insulting the state" (Article 301) with the so-called Armenian genocide commemoration program is nothing but an attempt to distort the incident.