Paris court fines reference book editors for portrayal of Armenian
killings

.c The Associated Press

PARIS (AP) – A Paris court on Wednesday ordered the editors of a
French reference book to pay a small fine for an unbalanced portrayal
of the killings of hundreds of thousands of Armenians during World War
I, which Armenians say was genocide.

The court said the Quid reference book favored Turkey’s position and
only briefly described the Armenian point of view.

The court issued a fine of euro1 ($1.19) and ordered the publication
of its verdict in three daily newspapers, three weekly newspapers and
on the Quid internet site.

The committee for the defense of the Armenian cause filed a complaint
against the encyclopedia in 2003.

Defense lawyers for the reference book underlined its editorial
freedom and pointed out that the book mentions a 2001 French law that
recognizes the killings as genocide.

Armenians say some 1.5 million of their people were killed as the
Ottoman Empire forced them from eastern Turkey between 1915 and 1923
in a deliberate campaign of genocide.

Turkey says the death count is inflated and insists that Armenians
were killed or displaced in the civil unrest during the collapse of
the Ottoman Empire.

The two countries do not have diplomatic relations because of the
dispute.

07/06/05 12:12 EDT