BBC NEWS:
2006/05/18 14:37:07 GMT
994434.stm

French MPs shelve ‘genocide’ vote

The French parliament has postponed debate on a bill that would make
it a crime to deny that the mass killing of Armenians in 1915 was
“genocide”. Turkish officials and businesses had lobbied French MPs
to shelve the bill, which relates to a thorny issue still plaguing
Turkish-Armenian relations. Turkey rejects Armenia’s claim that the
Ottoman Turks killed 1.5m Armenians. The French Socialist opposition
wanted a new law to impose fines in line with those for Holocaust
deniers. Anyone denying that six million Jews were killed by the
Nazis in World War II can be fined up to 39,064 euros (£26,500) and be
jailed for five years in France. Armenia says up to 1.5 million
Armenians were deported and died at the hands of the Ottoman rulers in
World War I. Turkey says a few hundred thousand died in a war which
also left many Turks dead. Diplomatic impact Ahead of the debate,
Turkish MPs had been lobbying their French counterparts, warning of
irreparable damage if the bill passed into law. It was set to be a
free vote for French MPs, but President Jacques Chirac said that
passing the bill would be a mistake.

Foreign Minister Philippe Douste-Blazy agreed, telling the National
Assembly: “The Armenian cause is just and should be defended and
respected. But the bill you have submitted today would, if passed, be
considered as an unfriendly gesture by a large majority of Turks,
whether you want this or not.” As the session ran out of time for a
vote to take place, there were reportedly angry scenes as MPs and
Armenian groups in the public gallery shouted: “Vote! Vote!” There
are some 400,000 people of Armenian descent in France, and the
Socialists have been accused of trying to win their favour ahead of
next year’s presidential election. Some European Union countries have
passed bills recognising the killings as genocide and the European
Parliament has backed a non-binding resolution saying Turkey must
recognise it as such before it can join the EU. The French bill will
now be shelved until October at the earliest.