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Los Angeles Times: â€œFrench Senate should reject bill that would criminalize denial of the Armenian genocideâ€

20 January 2012 10:29 (UTC +04:00)

Baku. Habil Suleymanzadeh â€“ APA. In an article published on January 19, the Los Angeles Times has said that the "French Senate should reject a bill criminalizing the denial of Armenian allegations pertaining to the incidents of 1915".

On Monday, the French Senate is scheduled to debate and possibly vote on a bill that would criminalize denial of the Armenian genocide of 1915, along with any other events recognized as genocide in French law.

The bill has passed the lower house of Parliament. The Senate should reject it, in the name of free speech, the freedom of historical inquiry and Article 11 of France’s pathbreaking 1789 Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen ("The free communication of ideas and opinions is one of the most precious rights.").

The question is not whether the atrocities committed against the Armenians by the Ottoman Empire were terrible, or whether they should be acknowledged in Turkish and European memory. They were and they should be. The question is: Should it be a crime under the law of France, or other countries, to dispute whether those terrible events constituted a genocide, a term used in international law? And is the French Parliament equipped and entitled to set itself up as a tribunal on world history, handing down verdicts on the past conduct of other nations? The answer: No and no.