ARMENIAN DIASPORA PUTS PRESSURE ON FRENCH SENATE
Today’s Zaman
Nov 24 2008
Turkey
Members of Armenian associations based in France held a demonstration
in front of the French Senate building on Saturday, asking for the
approval of a bill that makes the denial of the Armenian genocide
a crime.
The French National Assembly, the lower house of the French Parliament,
adopted a bill in October 2006 that made it a crime to deny that
Ottoman Turks committed genocide against Armenians living in Anatolia
during World War I, despite Ankara’s protests and a warning that this
would "poison" the deeply rooted relations between the two countries.
The genocide bill has been waiting to be debated by the Senate,
the upper house of the French Parliament.
Representatives of Armenian associations have suggested that the bill
should be brought onto the agenda of the Senate.
Last week, a report drawn up by a committee of academics concluded
that the French legislative mechanism should not make decisions
concerning historical issues and also the content of history textbooks.
The bill seeks up to three years in jail for those who dispute claims
that Armenians were subject to genocide during World War I. It has
angered Turkey, which categorically refutes genocide charges and says
the killings came when Armenians revolted against the Ottoman Empire
in collaboration with an invading Russian army.
The report said if the parliament needed to make decisions particularly
on historical issues, then these decisions should only be binding
for the parliament itself, and not the state in general.