THE SENATE OF FRANCE RATIFIES A BILL CRIMINALIZING DENIAL OF SO-CALLED “ARMENIAN GENOCIDE”
APA
Jan 23 2012
Azerbaijan
Strasbourg. Fuad Gulubayli -APA. The Senate, upper house of French
parliament, ratified the law draft criminalizing denial of “Armenian
genocide” for 1-year imprisonment and penalty for 45 thousand euro.
Initially discussions were on the opinion issued by the Legislation
Committee on unacceptability of the draft law criminalizing denial
of so-called “Armenian genocide” but after the voting the document
of the committee was not approved.
After the long lasting discussions, majority of the senators rejected
to approve opinion of the committee. 167 senators against 86 of all
253 Senators attending voting rejected the document of the committee.
Discussions beginning at the second half of the day, started with a
speech of Patrick Olliler, Minister for Relationships with Parliament.
French minister pointing out his support for the bill on behalf of
French government called senators to ratify the law draft.
Then, the head of the Constitutional Committee of French Senate Jean
Pierre Sueur delivered his report. The head of the Committee noted
that this law is against the spirit of constitution and its values;
he called senators to reject the bill.
According to Jean Pierre Sueur, ratification of this bill will oblige
France to accept other genocides.
At the discussions 263 senators of total 348 attended at the Senate.
Jean Pierre Sueur giving interview to the “Public Senate” TV channel
noted that nothing was changed and the law draft is the same since
the bill was rejected on May 4, 2011.
“The only changed thing is desire of French president to win
elections. Besides, let’s not forget that France is one of the
co-chairs of OSCE Minsk Group on regulation of Armenian-Azerbaijan,
Nagorno Karabakh conflict and ratification of this bill by France will
create risks for doubts on France’s biased position for this mission.
As, it will not in favor of our diplomacy in South Caucasus,” said Jean
Pierre Sueur, the head of the Constitutional committee of French Senate
France accepted officially so-called “Armenian genocide” on January
29, 2001. The French National Assembly accepted the bill criminalizing
denial of so-called Armenian genocide on October 12, 2006. But on May
4, 2011, the Senate considering the bill groundless, didn’t approved
the document. The National Assembly accepted the bill on December
22, 2011 again. Ratification of the bill by French senate will be
considered full formal approval of the document by the parliament of
France. The president of France should sign the bill as a final step
for its coming into force
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress
