FRENCH GOVT SAYS ARMENIAN GENOCIDE BILL ‘NOT NECESSARY’

Agence France Presse — English
October 10, 2006 Tuesday 3:42 PM GMT

PARIS, Oct 10 2006

The French government said Tuesday it believed a bill enshrining
the World War I massacre of Armenians as genocide by Turkey was
"not necessary", following stiff anger from Ankara.

The bill, drafted by the opposition Socialist Party and to be voted
on Thursday, "does not implicate the government", foreign ministry
spokesman Jean-Baptiste Mattei told reporters.

"In our view, it is not necessary," he said.

President Jacques Chirac’s ruling conservative party has distanced
itself from the bill which, if passed, would punish anybody who denied
the Armenian "genocide" with up to a year in prison and a 45,000-euro
(56,400-dollar) fine.

France in 2001 already adopted a law calling the massacres a genocide.

The bill has created an uproar in Turkey, which argues that while
300,000 Armenians died in 1915, at least as many Turks did too in
civil strife that occurred during the collapse of its Ottoman Empire.

Chirac has championed Turkey’s ambitions to join the European Union,
though domestic opposition has prompted him to soften his stance
somewhat.

On a recent trip to Armenia, he said Turkey should recognise the
Armenian killings as a genocide before being allowed to join the EU.