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ISTANBUL: Turkey Hails As 'Genocide' Bill In France Put On Hold

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  • ISTANBUL: Turkey Hails As 'Genocide' Bill In France Put On Hold

    TURKEY HAILS AS 'GENOCIDE' BILL IN FRANCE PUT ON HOLD

    Hurriyet Daily News
    Feb 1 2012
    Turkey

    Michel Diefenbacher spearheaded the appeal in the Lower House of
    Parliament. Turkey has hailed a motion by French legislators to
    halt a bill criminalizing denials of Armenian genocide claims after
    they produced the 60 signatures required to stop the draft from
    becoming law.

    Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan extended "wholehearted thanks"
    to the French senators who appealed the law and voiced hope France's
    Constitutional Council would quash the legislation.

    "I have no doubt the Constitutional Council will eventually make an
    appropriate decision," President Abdullah Gul said, adding that he
    was "not expecting the French from the very beginning to let their
    country be overshadowed" by the resolution.

    Ankara had reacted furiously last week when the French Senate approved
    the law that penalizes anyone in France who denies the 1915 killings
    of Armenians amounted to genocide with jail time and a fine.

    On Jan. 24 President Nicolas Sarkozy's office brushed off angry threats
    of retaliation by Turkey and vowed to sign the bill into law within
    a fortnight.

    But a left-wing group of senators said yesterday that they had gathered
    76 signatures from colleagues opposed to the law. A group from the
    Lower House of Parliament had also gathered 65 signatures yesterday and
    had formally requested that the Constitutional Council examine the law.

    The move raises the possibility that the law will be dismissed as
    unconstitutional. The appeal was spearheaded by Jacques Mezard at
    the Senate and Michel Diefenbacher, the head of the Turkish-French
    Parliamentary Friendship Group. The groups said they each had
    gathered more than the minimum 60 signatures required to ask the
    council to test the law's constitutionality. If the court finds the
    law unconstitutional, the legislation will be rejected.

    "This is an atomic bomb for the Elysee [Sarkozy's office], which
    didn't see it coming," said deputy Lionel Tardy, who said most of the
    65 signatories from the Lower House were, like him, from Sarkozy's
    Union for a Popular Movement (UMP) party. The council is obliged to
    deliver its judgment within a month, but the period could be reduced
    to eight days if the government deems the matter urgent.

    Turkey welcomes move

    Turkish officials were universal in welcoming the development. "The
    fact that the application was made with over 60 signatures from both
    houses [of the French Parliament] is a significant development. I
    extend my wholehearted thanks to those French parliamentarians on
    behalf of myself and my nation. They did what they were supposed to
    do. I hope that the Constitutional Council will rectify this unjust
    process and bring it in line with the values of France," Erdogan said.

    Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu also hailed the French senators'
    move, saying that with this step France embraced its own values.

    Turkish EU Minister Egemen BagıÅ~_, meanwhile, said yesterday that
    "freedom of expression is one of the most important features in the
    EU acquis." BagıÅ~_ also noted European Commissioner for Enlargement
    Stefan Fule's remarks about the French resolution in which Fule said
    illuminating history was the business of historians, not politicians.

    France has already officially recognized the killings as genocide,
    but the new law would go further by punishing anyone who denies
    this with up to a year in jail and a fine of 45,000 euros. Around 20
    countries have officially recognized the killings as genocide. Amnesty
    International has criticized the French law, saying it would violate
    freedom of expression.

    Compiled from AFP, AA and Reuters stories by the Daily News staff.

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