GENOCIDE BILL AT FRENCH CONSTITUTIONAL COMMISSION
By Ali Ihsan Aydin, Paris

Zaman, Turkey
May 10 2006

The controversial bid to penalize those who deny the so-called genocide
in France will be discussed at the French National Parliament’s
Constitutional Commission today.

The motion, expected to be discussed at the National Parliament on
May 18, needs to be approved by the Senate as well to become a law.

If the motion passes, those denying the existence of the so-called
genocide may be fined 45,000 euros and sentenced to one-year in
prison. The French Foreign Ministry in a statement yesterday said
“they are following the developments carefully” concerning Turkey’s
reaction. The bill prepared by the main opposition Socialist Party
(SP) needs to pass the commission in order to reach the parliament.

Last month, the SP decided to bring the bill to the parliament by
using its “right to determine agenda” given to French parties in
proportion to the number of deputies. Five other bills prepared by
parliamentarians from the ruling Union for a Popular Movement (UMP) and
the SP in this frame were unable to be included on the parliamentary
agenda since 2001. The right to determine the agenda, which normally
belongs to the government, will be invoked by the SP on May 18.

A Turkish split in the SP

Jean Marc Ayrault, the Socialists’ house leader, that party that
prepared the bill, does not hide his concern about the draft.

Ayrault, warning that the bill will be a “source of chaos and
difficulty,” stresses the offer came to the agenda as “a result of
big pressure from the party.”

The left-leaning newspaper Liberation wrote that the bill deepened
the crisis between France and Turkey.

Liberation estimates Ankara harshly reacted to the proposed law when
it recalled Ambassador to France Osman Koruturk “to discuss the issue,”
and “is getting harsher against France.”

The article cites the boycotting of French goods and excluding of
French companies from public tenders came to the agenda in Turkey,
and those who criticize the bill, mostly Turkish intellectuals such
as Baskin Oran, are struggling against official history. Marc Semo,
the newspaper’s expert on Turkey who wrote the article, maintains that
although the majority of historians accept it, Ankara still rejects
the so-called genocide. In the event the bill passes, Turkish-French
relationships, which almost stopped in 2001 due to the Armenian issue,
are again expected to undergo a second crisis.