DEPUTY-MAYOR OF ALFORTVILLE TOWN URGED FRENCH GOVERNMENT TO ADOPT BILL ON CRIMINAL PUNISHMENT OF NEGATIONNISTS OF ARMENIAN GENOCIDE

De Facto
Dec 3, 2008

YEREVAN, 03.12.08. DE FACTO. On Tuesday, December 2, Mr. Rene Rouquet,
Deputy-Mayor of Alfortville town (area of Paris), with a strong
concentration of citizens of Armenian origin, challenged the French
government so that the Senate achieves a legislative evolution, in
order to punish the negationnists of the Armenian genocide of 1915,
an independent French journalist Jean Eckian told DE FACTO.

"This concern is not only that of Armenian Diaspora of France: it
is that of all those which are attached to justice and the right,
for which France, fatherland of the Rights of Man and cradle of the
lights, would be honored to adapt its legislation to condemn, penally,
the negation or the dispute of this genocide", he said.

In his answer to the deputy, Mr. Alain Marleix, Secretary of State
for interior and to the territorial collectivities, said: "concerning
the bill of which you speak, the position of the Government is clear
and known: it is not favorable to its inscription with day order of
the Senate. As I have just evoked it, the legislative device already
exists. Moreover, the Government considers that it does not belong to
the Parliament to legislate on history and that it is to the historians
for whom it returns to write and to interpret this one". Secretary of
State justified the current location of the French government by the
evolution of the Turkish Armenian dialogue that "we must encourage",
he said.

To note, on this question, the French government is in total
contradiction with position of President Sarkozy, favorable to the
penalization of the negation of Armenian Genocide.

In reaction to the decision of the French government, Council of
Coordination of the Armenian Organizations of France, Calls to
demonstrate on December 10 in front of the Senate.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress