Europe

Europe

French parliament passes bill outlawing denial of so-called â€œArmenian genocideâ€ â€“ UPDATED

French parliament passes bill outlawing denial of so-called â€œArmenian genocideâ€ â€“ <font color=red>UPDATED </font>

22 December 2011 13:34 (UTC +04:00)

APAâ€™s Europe bureau reports that the bill was submitted to the parliament by the member of the ruling party ValÃ©rie Boyer and her 40 close colleagues in October. According to the bill, those denying the so-called â€œArmenian genocideâ€ will be sentenced to one-year imprisonment and fined for â‚¬ 45 000. The bill was adopted by the ruling party members. The government supported the adoption of the bill. Most of the parliamentarians called to pass the bill. The parliamentarians, who opposed the bill, called on the French lawmakers not to deal with the historical issues, mentioned that there are such shameful pages in the history of France, too.

Possible tensions in France-Turkey relations were mentioned frequently during the debates. Chairman of the French-Turkish friendship group of the National Assembly, member of ruling party Michel Diefenbaker said the Armenian issue coincided with the eve of elections every time and it was a political speculation, and the history should be left for the historians to be researched. The French parliamentarians held intensive debates around the notion of genocides and differences between them. Two genocides were recognized by the French legislators. In 1990, France recognized the genocide against the Jews committed by the German Nazi during the World War Two and the French legislation considers relevant punishment against the persons denying this genocide. In 2001, the French parliament recognized the â€œArmenian genocideâ€ and such draft laws were adopted by the parliaments of several countries. As distinct from Holocaust, the â€œArmenian genocideâ€ was not recognized by any legal instance and there was no any decision by the international court.

France recognized the fictitious â€œArmenian genocideâ€ on January 29, 2001. The National Assembly passed the bill criminalizing the denial of â€œArmenian genocideâ€ on October 12, 2006 and sent to the Senate for confirmation. On May 4, 2011 the Senate refused to confirm the bill saying it contradicts the Constitution. The relevant draft law adopted by the National Assembly today will be sent to the Senate and then to the President for approval and only after that it will come into force.