Tweet
FRENCH SENATE TAKES UP ARMENIAN GENOCIDE BILL
Monsters and Critics.com
Jan 23 2012
Paris - The French Senate was scheduled Monday to debate a bill that
would make it a crime to deny that Armenians suffered genocide at
the hand of Ottoman Turks during World War I.
The lower house of parliament has already adopted the bill, which
punishes denial of genocides recognized by France by up to a year in
prison and 45,000 euros (57,000 dollars) in fines.
France officially recognizes two genocides: the Nazi Holocaust of
Jews during World War II - the denial of which is already punishable
by law - and the killing of hundreds of thousands of Armenians in
eastern Turkey between 1915 and 1917.
Turkey denies the massacres of Armenians were genocide, saying that
there was no systematic policy to destroy the Christian Armenian
community and that many Muslim Turks also died in the violence.
Ankara suspended contact with Paris after lawmakers in the National
Assembly overwhelmingly adopted the bill in December.
Turkey's Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu, in an interview with France
24 television at the weekend, warned of stepped-up sanctions if the
Senate also voted in favour.
Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has accused French
President Nicolas Sarkozy of using the bill to try to win the support
of France's small but influential Armenian community ahead of this
year's presidential and parliamentary elections.
Before becoming president in 2007 Sarkozy promised the Armenian
community to push through legislation banning genocide denial.
Monsters and Critics.com
Jan 23 2012
Paris - The French Senate was scheduled Monday to debate a bill that
would make it a crime to deny that Armenians suffered genocide at
the hand of Ottoman Turks during World War I.
The lower house of parliament has already adopted the bill, which
punishes denial of genocides recognized by France by up to a year in
prison and 45,000 euros (57,000 dollars) in fines.
France officially recognizes two genocides: the Nazi Holocaust of
Jews during World War II - the denial of which is already punishable
by law - and the killing of hundreds of thousands of Armenians in
eastern Turkey between 1915 and 1917.
Turkey denies the massacres of Armenians were genocide, saying that
there was no systematic policy to destroy the Christian Armenian
community and that many Muslim Turks also died in the violence.
Ankara suspended contact with Paris after lawmakers in the National
Assembly overwhelmingly adopted the bill in December.
Turkey's Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu, in an interview with France
24 television at the weekend, warned of stepped-up sanctions if the
Senate also voted in favour.
Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has accused French
President Nicolas Sarkozy of using the bill to try to win the support
of France's small but influential Armenian community ahead of this
year's presidential and parliamentary elections.
Before becoming president in 2007 Sarkozy promised the Armenian
community to push through legislation banning genocide denial.