Turkish Daily News
May 29 2008

‘Genocide denial’ to be illegal in Slovakia
Thursday, May 29, 2008

ISTANBUL – Turkish Daily News

A new bill that will criminalize denying Armenian genocide
allegations is set to be introduced in Slovakia, with penalties to
include imprisonment, a newspaper reported yesterday.

On a visit to the Armenian capital Yerevan, Slovak Deputy Prime
Minister and Minister of Justice Stefan Harabin told journalists that
the `genocide denial’ draft bill sent to parliament by the
administration would cover all instances of genocide, adding that it
particularly stressed Armenian genocide allegations, daily Milliyet
reported. The minister expects the bill to be ratified by parliament
in January or February of next year. When asked whether this bill was
pushed for by the Armenian lobby, Lucia Najslova of the Research
Center for the Slovak Foreign Policy Association told TDN that, "There
was no significant Armenian presence in Slovakia. If the parliament
will pass a bill against hate speech, it should primarily target those
who deny the Holocaust and involvement of the WW2 Slovak Republic and
its highest officials in it."Harabin added that, as there had been no
criticism from the opposition when the administration was discussing
the bill, he expected it to pass easily. If the Slovakian parliament
passes the bill, denying that the Ottoman Empire’s forced displacement
of Armenians in 1915 was genocide will be penalized with five years of
incarceration. The Slovakian parliament passed a non-binding
resolution in 2004 condemning the alleged Armenian genocide.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress