PanARMENIAN.Net

Dutch Armenians Thank French Parliamentarians
13.10.2006 13:41 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ The Federation of Armenian Organizations in the
Netherlands (FAON) is glad that the French National Assembly in large
majority has adopted a bill, which makes denial of the Armenian
Genocide a crime, says the press release received by PanARMENIAN.Net
from the FAON communication unit. Denying the holocaust has been a
crime in France since 1990.

`The Federation believes that with such a provision a dam is raised
against denial propaganda of the Turkish government, which is painful
for the Armenians. Also in the Netherlands such denial material is
spread, on internet sites, in writings and also in the public
debate. For victims and their surviving descendants it is cause for
problems each time. On basis of the discrimination prohibition in the
Criminal Code such remarks are in principle already a crime. It would
be a major improvement if the Dutch legislation would make it
explicitly clear that public expressions, where genocides are
systematically denied with the intention to hurt or discriminate
people, will be impossible in The Netherlands. The Federation hopes,
therefore, that the initiative bill submitted by
Mrs. Huizinga-Heringa, Member of Parliament of Christian Union
faction, which foresees the punishment of the genocide denial, will be
adopted by the House of Representatives. The Federation emphasizes for
sake of completeness that this bill is not directed to the denials in
itself, as it is suggested sometimes in the media, but to the
offending or discriminating aspects of genocide denials,’ the FAON
statement says.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress