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ARMENIA GENOCIDE LAW CAST OUT BY TOP FRENCH COURT
by Charles Bremner
The Times
February 28, 2012 Tuesday 5:10 PM GMT
UK
France's highest court today struck down a law, promoted by President
Sarkozy, that would make it illegal to deny that Ottoman Turks had
committed genocide against the Armenian people nearly a century ago.
The ruling by the Constitutional Council was an embarrassment to Mr
Sarkozy's Union for a Popular Movement, which had promoted the law,
but it will end a diplomatic spat with Turkey.
Ankara has threatened to cut all diplomatic relations with France
over the legislation, which was backed by both sides of Parliament
but opposed by senior figures including Alain Juppe, Mr Sarkozy's
Foreign Minister.
Ahmet Davutoglu, the Turkish Foreign Minister, welcomed the court
ruling. The Turkish Cabinet would meet to consider whether to restart
economic, political and military contacts with France which were frozen
after the French parliament passed the law on January 23, he said.
The Council ruled that the law, which would have imposed a (EURO)45,000
(£38,000) fine, a one-year prison sentence, or both, on genocide
deniers, infringed the principles of freedom of expression which
are written into France's founding documents. "The Council deems
the law contrary to the constitution," the Council said. Politicians
had entered a "realm of responsibility that belongs to historians,"
it added.
The ruling is final, but Mr Sarkozy has promised to submit a new
draft of the law if it was rejected.
Critics said that MPs had backed the law to curry favour with France's
big Armenian diaspora community ahead of presidential and parliamentary
elections this spring.
by Charles Bremner
The Times
February 28, 2012 Tuesday 5:10 PM GMT
UK
France's highest court today struck down a law, promoted by President
Sarkozy, that would make it illegal to deny that Ottoman Turks had
committed genocide against the Armenian people nearly a century ago.
The ruling by the Constitutional Council was an embarrassment to Mr
Sarkozy's Union for a Popular Movement, which had promoted the law,
but it will end a diplomatic spat with Turkey.
Ankara has threatened to cut all diplomatic relations with France
over the legislation, which was backed by both sides of Parliament
but opposed by senior figures including Alain Juppe, Mr Sarkozy's
Foreign Minister.
Ahmet Davutoglu, the Turkish Foreign Minister, welcomed the court
ruling. The Turkish Cabinet would meet to consider whether to restart
economic, political and military contacts with France which were frozen
after the French parliament passed the law on January 23, he said.
The Council ruled that the law, which would have imposed a (EURO)45,000
(£38,000) fine, a one-year prison sentence, or both, on genocide
deniers, infringed the principles of freedom of expression which
are written into France's founding documents. "The Council deems
the law contrary to the constitution," the Council said. Politicians
had entered a "realm of responsibility that belongs to historians,"
it added.
The ruling is final, but Mr Sarkozy has promised to submit a new
draft of the law if it was rejected.
Critics said that MPs had backed the law to curry favour with France's
big Armenian diaspora community ahead of presidential and parliamentary
elections this spring.