DASHNAK GENOCIDE BILL STALLS IN ARMENIAN PARLIAMENT
Irina Hovannisian

Armenialiberty.org
Nov 13 2009

Armenia — David Harutiunian, chairman of the parliament committee
on legal affairs.

A key committee of the National Assembly effectively rejected on
Friday a proposal by the opposition Armenian Revolutionary Federation
(Dashnaktsutyun) to criminalize public statements denying that the
1915 massacres of Armenians in Ottoman Turkey constituted genocide.

Armenia’s Criminal Code already carries heavy fines and up to four
years’ imprisonment for public denial of genocides and "other crimes
against humanity." An amendment tabled by Dashnaktsutyun last month
would extend the maximum punishment to five years and apply it to
anyone "denying, playing down, approving or justifying the genocide
of Armenians in Ottoman Turkey and Western Armenia."

Dashnaktsutyun leaders acknowledge that the bill is directly connected
with the recent agreements to normalize Armenia’s relations with
Turkey that have been strongly condemned by the nationalist party.

They say it is specifically directed against a Turkish-Armenian
"subcommission" of historians envisaged by one of the agreements.

It would be tasked with studying the extermination of the Ottoman
Empire’s sizable Armenian population. Dashnaktsutyun and other
critics of the deal say the very existence of such a body would
call into question the fact of the genocide, a claim denied by the
Yerevan government.

In a written opinion submitted to the Armenian parliament committee
on legal affairs this week, the Ministry of Justice objected to the
Dashnaktsutyun bill and essentially upheld the existing Criminal Code
clause relating to genocide denial. The committee on Friday postponed
the bill’s consideration by at least two months, meaning that the
proposed amendment will not reach the parliament floor before February.

The committee chairman, David Harutiunian, made no secret of his strong
opposition to the measure, saying that it would create "extremely
serious problems" in the ongoing Turkish-Armenian negotiations. He
said its passage would lead the Turkish authorities to resume heavy
enforcement of a controversial law makes it a crime to "insult the
Turkish nation." The law, watered down last year, has been used in
the prosecution of prominent Turks who have questioned the official
Turkish version of the events of 1915.

Harutiunian also argued that by adopting the amendment drafted by
Dashnaktsutyun the National Assembly would give the impression that
there is now a "serious movement" within Armenian that denies the
genocidal character of those events. "Besides, I believe Armenia’s
position on this issue is so strong that we don’t need any additional
tools of defense in the shape of criminal liability," the former
justice minister said at a committee meeting. "The stronger party
doesn’t need such tools."

"I don’t see that confidence about our strength," Vahan Hovannisian,
the leader of the Dashnaktsutyun faction in the parliament, countered,
referring to President Serzh Sarkisian’s conciliatory policy towards
Turkey. He said the October 10 signing of the Turkish-Armenian
protocols in Zurich was "a sign of weakness" on the part of Yerevan.