Zaman Online, Turkey
May 10 2005

Armenians Apply to Belgium Senate
By Selcuk Gultasli, Vedat Denizli

An application has been submitted to the Belgium Senate to intensify
a bill that foresees prison and financial penalties for those who
deny the occurrence of the Armenian “genocide”. The Armenian lobby
that needs 15 signatures to reinforce the bill for the Senate review,
applied to the Senate with 19 signatures on Monday, May 9.

The nineteen-signature application targets a bill to facilitate
punishments against the “deniers”. Since there is no international
court decision that accepts the so-called Armenian “genocide”, it is
difficult for the Armenian draft to be put into practice. Therefore,
the Armenian lobby expects the removal of this article from the
draft.

The alteration offer containing the 19 signatures will primarily be
addressed at the Justice Commission. They need nine votes for the
confirmation of the alteration offer at the Commission where Turkish
Fatma Pehlivan is a standby member. The Commission comprises of three
Fleming Socialists, three Walloon Socialists, three Fleming Liberals,
two Walloon Liberals, two Fleming Christian Democrats, one Walloon
Christian Democrat, and two racist Fleming senators.

Anticipations indicate the Fleming and Walloon will say “no” to the
alteration proposals of the socialists. They need the support of
three more senators to disapprove the proposal. Expectedly, if the
Commission decides in line with the demands of Armenian lobby, the
Senate General Council will also confirm the draft.