FRENCH GENOCIDE LAW A ‘BAD MISTAKE’ SAYS FINNISH FM
Helena Spongenberg
EUobserver.com, Belgium
Oct 17 2006
EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS – The French law criminalising the denial of
the Armenian genocide during the first world war is a "bad mistake"
says the Finnish foreign minister, explaining that historical truths
should not be up to politicians to decide.
"Legislators should never interfere with this kind of open and
introspective soul-searching and the debates it fosters," Erkki
Tuomioja writes on his internet blog, as Finland currently holds the
rotating EU presidency.
"Unfortunately the French National Assembly has not respected this,"
he said.
The socialist-drafted law was passed by 106 votes to 19 in the lower
house last week and found favour on both sides of the political
divide although president Jacques Chirac’s conservative government
is against it.
The legislation – which must still go through France’s upper house
before it comes into force – follows on the heels of a 2001 National
Assembly resolution which recognised the massacre of Armenians by
the Ottoman Turks as genocide.
But the new bill proposes making Armenia genocide denial punishable
by up to one year in prison and a fine of ~@45,000.
"This legislation is a bad mistake and it should be quickly revoked,"
Mr Tuomioja wrote. "Parliaments and governments should not … ever
attempt to legislate on what historical truths are allowed and which
are declared illegal."
"For the record I do not consider genocide an exaggerated description
for what happened, and I wish the Turks were more ready to recognise
this by now," he added.
Orhan Pamuk The minister explained that the EU has repeatedly called
on Turkey to repeal the notorious article 301 of its criminal code,
which has been used to bring charges against Nobel-prize winner
Orhan Pamuk along with scores of less well-known Turks for expressing
opinions deemed insulting to the Turkish state.
"Now the conservative forces in Turkey can dismiss these calls and
question the right of the EU to demand this, as France has just
adopted comparable legislation," the Finnish minister stressed.
Both Brussels and Ankara have condemned the law, saying the move
is likely to hinder open dialogue on Armenia in would-be EU member
state Turkey.
Mr Tuomioja is also against laws criminalising the denial of the
Jewish Holocaust during the Second World War, which many EU countries
put in place years ago.
"Such legislation is not defensible either. While Holocaust-denial is
almost exclusively associated with anti-Semitism, other laws on the
statute books criminalising racist incitement against and defaming
of any and all ethnic groups are sufficient to deal with this,"
he pointed out in his online diary.