FRENCH SENATE BLOCKED THE BILL THAT CRIMINALIZE THE SO CALLED 1915 EVENTS

Journal of Turkish Weekly
Dec 7 2008
Turkey

The Secretary of the State for Interior, Overseas and Local
Authorities, Alain Marleix said that, they are not planning to bring
the issue of criminalizing the persons who deny the so called Armenian
Genocide to the Senate.

In response to the question asked by the Socialist Party representative
Rene Roquet, Marleix said that his country’s position was clear. "The
French government believes that the past should be dealt by the
historians and the parliament is not entitled to adopt bills on
the issue", an argument that is made by the Turkish officials for
several years. He also added that France was pleased by the recent
attempts by the Turkish and Armenian governments for better dialogue,
referring to President Abdullah Gul’s visit to Armenia. He said that
this visit was a bold and an encouraging move and approving such a
bill would jeopardize the positive environment.

The President of France, Nicolas Sarkozy is not in favor of approving
the bill either, however, the Armenian organizations are bombarding
Sarkozy with petition letters trying to put pressure on the President.

Although the Armenian Diaspora is utterly disappointed with the recent
decision, the constitution which was changed last summer enables the
Socialist Party to bring the issue to the Senate. There is however no
consensus among the Senators of the Socialist Party on the issue. The
Armenian Organizations Coordination Center announced the call for a
protest in front of the Senate on 10 December 2008.

On October 12, 2006, the lower house of the French parliament adopted
the bill which would set one-year prison term and a fine of â~B¬45,000
for anyone who denies that the Ottomans committed genocide against
Armenians during the First World War.

The 2006 bill was seen as a political move. Jack Lang, a socialist
MP said: "I believe the Socialist party has adopted an electoralist
point of view. It is not sincere. It is only to get the electoral
support of the Armenian community". Another argument driving the
anti-Turkish bill was to impress the French majority who do not want
Turkey joining the European Union.

On one hand it is argued that the blocking of the bill in the senate
is a result of purely economical concerns. Since the end of 1990s the
issue of "Armenian Genocide" harmed the Turkish-French relations. The
French companies were excluded from the public and military contracts
which cost the French billions of dollars. On the other hand it is
argued that passing such a bill was simply wrong in a country which
advocates the freedom of speech and opinion.

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