(ARMENIAN WEEKLY) STOCKHOLM, Sweden—On Dec. 14, the Stockholm District Court ordered former vice president of the Turkish National Association of Sweden Barbaros Leylani to pay a fine in the amount equal to 40-days of him income, for making xenophobic, anti-Armenian statements, which contained clear expressions of incitement to violence, hatred, and racial discrimination. According to Arshak Gavafyan, Chair of the Armenian National Committee (ANC) of Sweden, the court’s decision was not strict enough.
Leylani resigned from his position in April after calling for the death of “Armenian dogs” at a Stockholm a week earlier. Leylani’s hate speech came at an anti-Armenian rally held at Sergels Torg (Sergel’s Square), Stockholm’s central public square.
According to a report by Armenia’s ArmenPress, Leylani also called for the unification of Turkic republics. He declared, “Armenian scum must be finished,” in regard to the Four-Day War in Nagorno-Karabagh (Artsakh/NKR).
In his statement of resignation on the association’s website on April 11, Leylani apologized for his remarks, stating he was misunderstood. According to the associated press, Swedish legal watchdog Juridikfronten said it had reported Leyani to police for incitement of racial hatred.
“Armenians worldwide are protesting for peace and pressing for life-saving gunfire locators, while the organized Turkish and Azerbaijani diasporas (closely tied to Ankara and Baku) are pouring fuel on the fires of anti-Armenian hatred,” the Armenian National Committee of America (ANCA) remarked in a Facebook post on April 11.
Below is a video showing Leylani’s public remarks.
Photo: Stockholm District Court