OFFICIAL ANKARA WORRIED ABOUT GENOCIDE DRAFT

ArmRadio.am
19.04.2007 14:55

Official Ankara is worried that Armenia may use to its benefit the
EU law on penalizing the negation of the Holocaust and the Rwanda
Genocide. The Justice and Home Affairs Council may reach a general
approach on this Framework Decision today.

Zaman writes that despite the fact that the law does not envisage
criminal responsibility for the negation of the Armenian Genocide,
the Turkish authorities do not exclude that in the future the Armenian
Diaspora may comment it to its own benefit.

Let us remind that the bill envisages criminal responsibility (up to
three years in prison) for denying the Holocaust and the Genocide in
Rwanda. It will supposedly work all over Europe. Unknown diplomatic
sources told "Zaman" that the above-mentioned law "has nothing to do
with the Armenian Genocide."

"Even if the French Senate adopts the law on criminalizing the negation
of the Armenian Genocide, it will not apply to all European states. I’m
not confident the Armenian lobby will be able to have the law work
in all 27 EU member states," the source noted.