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Turkey Welcomes French Senators' Move To Block Genocide Bill

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  • Turkey Welcomes French Senators' Move To Block Genocide Bill

    TURKEY WELCOMES FRENCH SENATORS' MOVE TO BLOCK GENOCIDE BILL

    Deutsche Welle
    http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,,15705119,00.html
    Jan 31 2012
    Germany

    A week after France passed a bill making it a crime to deny the
    Armenian genocide of 1915, a group of French senators has taken the
    law to the Constitutional Council. Turkey welcomed the senators' move.

    A group of French senators has appealed to France's Constitutional
    Council to block a law that would punish anyone who denied the massacre
    of 1.5 million Armenians between 1915 and 1917 by Ottoman Turks.

    France has considered the massacre as genocide for some time, but
    last week, the French Senate angered Turkey when it passed a law
    criminalizing denial of the Armenian genocide.

    On Tuesday, however, a group of left-wing senators said they had
    collected enough signatures to force the measure to undergo a review
    of its constitutionality. Sixty signatures are needed to bring a
    law before the Constitutional Council. The senators said they had
    collected over 70.

    Law could be rejected

    Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan praised the senators' move.

    "This move is in keeping with what we would expect from France. I
    hope the Constitutional Council will do what is necessary," Erdogan
    was quoted as saying on the private NTV station.

    When the law was passed on January 23, Erdogan called the measure
    "discriminatory and racist." Ankara cancelled all economic, political
    and military meetings with Paris in response.

    France's Constitutional Council has up to a month to reach a decision
    on the law's constitutionality, which could result in a rejection of
    the law.

    As it currently stands, the law punishes deniers of the Armenian
    genocide with up to a year in jail and a fine of 45,000 euros
    ($57,000).

    Author: Matt Zuvela (AFP, Reuters) Editor: Gregg Benzow


    From: Baghdasarian
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