AZG Armenian Daily #092, 21/05/2005

Armenian Genocide

BELGIAN SOCIALISTS HAVE ANTI-ARMENIAN POSITION

Soon, the Senate of Belgium is going to discuss the bill that envisages
criminal punishment for denying genocides. The point is that the bill
concerns only de jure recognized genocides. We have already mentioned
that the bill can be applied against the deniers of the Armenian
Genocide only when certain amendments are made to the document.

It is envisaged to discuss the amendments that envisage criminal
punishment for other instances, particularly, for the Belgian
federal legal bodies and the legal instances of Europe that denied
the recognized genocides.

According to the information sent to the Justice and Democracy
Federation of European Armenians, the socialist party of Belgium
has occupied an openly negative position. Trying to approve their
anti-Armenian position, the socialists state that they are against
the submitted amendments, as “one shouldn’t include such an important
idea as genocide into a criminal text.”

The socialists cynically conclude that it will be possible to apply
the current bill for “the Armenian Genocide too, when it will be
recognized by a relevant instance.”

The Justice and Democracy Federation of European Armenians believes
that this position of the Socialistic party is directly dictated by the
Turkish state, that continues the policy of denying and disregarding
the Armenian Genocide.

“In fact, the socialists are mocking at the Belgian instances and,
in particular, the Senate, equaling to zero the bills that they adopt
there,” the Federation of the European Armenians emphasized, condemning
the position of the Socialist Party that denies its own past.

The current position of the Socialists is conditioned by only
pre-electoral factors and is aimed to please thousands of Turks that
live in Brussels. The Federation calls for the legal enforcement
organizations, the Center for Equal Rights, the activists of Socialist
movement, the genocide victims’ organizations, in particular, the
Jewish, Armenian and other unions to demand from the Socialist Party
to apologize and occupy a position that keeps in line with European
values.

By Petros Keshishian