French MPs pass ‘genocide’ bill
BBC
October 12, 2006
The French parliament has adopted a bill making it a crime to deny
that Armenians suffered “genocide” at the hands of the Turks,
infuriating Turkey.
The bill, which would make genocide denial punishable by a year in
jail and a 45,000-euro ($56,400) fine, will now be passed to the
Senate and president.
Turkey has threatened to retaliate with economic sanctions against France.
Armenia says Ottoman Turks killed 1.5 million people systematically in
1915 – a claim strongly denied by Turkey.

Last Updated: Thursday, 12 October 2006, 10:20 GMT 11:20 UK

French in Armenia ‘genocide’ row
The French parliament has adopted a bill making it a crime to deny
that Armenians suffered “genocide” at the hands of the Turks,
infuriating Turkey. The bill, which would make genocide denial
punishable by a year in jail and a 45,000-euro ($56,400) fine, will
now be passed to the Senate and president.
Turkey has threatened to retaliate with economic sanctions against
France.
Armenia says Ottoman Turks killed 1.5 million people systematically in
1915 – a claim strongly denied by Turkey.
Free vote
Turkey has been warning France for weeks not to pass the bill.
Turkish Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul said on Wednesday: “If this bill
is passed, Turkey will not lose anything but France will lose
Turkey. [France] will turn into a country that jails people who
express their views.”
The vote, in the lower house of the French parliament on Thursday
morning, was sponsored by the opposition Socialist party.
The ruling Union for a Popular Movement (UMP) did not back the law,
but gave its deputies a free vote.
It passed by 106 votes to 19.
EU membership bid
The BBC’s Sarah Rainsford in Istanbul says many Turks are angry at
what they see as double standards in the EU, where opinions are
sharply divided about whether Turkey should be allowed to join.
The official Turkish position states that many Christian Armenians and
Muslim Turks died in fighting during World War I – but that there was
no genocide.
France’s President Chirac and Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy have
both said Turkey will have to change that position and recognise the
Armenian deaths as genocide before it joins the EU.
Turks argue that while the EU is pressuring Turkey to improve its
legislation to ensure full freedom of speech France seems to be moving
in the opposite direction.
EU enlargement commissioner Olli Rehn urged France not to adopt the
bill, which he said was “counterproductive”.
Turkish politicians on Wednesday considered a law that would make it a
crime to deny that French killings in Algeria in 1945 were genocide.
But Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan objected, saying: “We are not
like those who clean dirt with dirt.”
France has about 500,000 people of Armenian descent – thought to be
the largest Armenian immigrant community in western Europe.
There are accusations in Turkey that the Armenian diaspora and
opponents of Turkey’s EU membership bid are using this issue to
prevent Turkey joining the 25-member bloc.
The Socialist MP and former minister Jack Lang helped to draft an
existing French law which recognises that Armenians suffered genocide
in Turkey.
But he told the BBC’s World Today programme that the new bill was
unnecessary.
“I cannot give my vote to a completely stupid law which will punish
somebody who expressed free judgement concerning historical
facts. It’s not acceptable.
“We have to help Turkey to accept, progressively, what was history. I
think that this provocation of the French parliament will not help the
consciousness in Turkey,” he said.

Last Updated: Thursday, 12 October 2006, 09:17 GMT 10:17 UK

Armenia vote splits Turkish press
Newspapers in Turkey differ over how to respond to Thursday’s vote in the French parliament on a bill that would make it a crime to deny that Turks committed genocide against Armenians during World War I.
Some commentators believe the vote signals opposition to Turkey joining the European Union, and one writer calls France “a disgrace to the civilised world”.
Other dailies appeal for a level-headed approach so that Turkey does not “humiliate” itself, and argue that Ankara still has many friends in Europe.
CENGIZ CANDAR IN BUGUN
The draft law is actually a clear sign that “the anti-Turkey rebellion in the EU” has begun. That’s why we cannot and must not see today’s vote and its results exclusively in terms of relations between Turkey and France. This contains dimensions that can turn into a Turkey-EU issue, and the opposition against Turkey in the EU has begun to present an ugly face.
HASAN CEMAL IN MILLIYET
In Europe there are not only those who want to keep Turkey outside of the EU. There are also those who defend Turkey’s EU membership in terms of the contribution it will make to the political, economic and strategic interests of Europe. That is why staying on track and continuing the journey to Europe is certainly to Turkey’s benefit.
EMIN COLASAN IN HURRIYET
As long as we keep begging the Europeans on the way towards the EU, many more genocide tales, and many other issues and embarrassing obstacles will be set before us. Those who do not see this are either liars attempting to deceive the nation or the ignorant ready to sell their country to the EU.
MEHMET ALI BIRAND IN POSTA
Let us not provoke those Turkish people who cannot control their reactions. Let us tell France to “stop” but do that within civilised limits. Let us not humiliate ourselves nor incite xenophobia in Turkey.
OKTAY EKSI IN HURRIYET
We stress that France is a disgrace to the civilised world. However, it is a precondition for Turkey, which tells others that “what you are doing is shameful in terms of freedom of expression” first of all to get rid of its own sources of shame.
ILHAN SELCUK IN CUMHURIYET
France is not alone in this move. The West has changed towards Turkey! If France punishes those who say that “there was no Armenian genocide” it will be a shameful historical document and permit us to perceive the new realities of the world.
SAHIN ALPAY IN ZAMAN
Ankara is getting ready to retaliate against France if it turns the denial of the “Armenian Genocide” into a crime. Even if we assume that the EU politicians and elites are not so stupid as to take steps that will push Turkey away from Europe, it seems inevitable that Turkey-EU relations will go through a tense period in the future.

UN Development Programme Armenia
14, Petros Adamyan St., Yerevan 375010, Armenia
Tel: +374 10 56 60 73 + 121
Mob: +374 91 43 63 12
Fax: +374 10 54 38 11
E-mail: [email protected]
URLs: ;
PRESS RELEASE
October 12, 2006
CONTACT: Aramazd Ghalamkaryan
E-mail: [email protected]
UNDP AND CHILDREN OF ARMENIA FUND CONTINUE RURAL POVERTY REDUCTION
PROGRAMME
Two remote villages benefit from an enhanced partnership
Yerevan, October 12, 2006 – Today, at the UN office in Armenia, United
Nations Development Programme (UNDP), the Children of Armenia Fund
(COAF), and the mayors of Yervandashat and Shenik villages launched
two projects aimed at community development and rural poverty
eradication – a priority both for the government and the international
community.
Rural poverty eradication was the focus of the recently held
Armenia-Diaspora Third Conference, where UNDP and the Children of
Armenia Fund also participated and presented their corresponding
programmes. An initiative by Mr. Garo Armen, founder of the Fund, was
considered as exemplary and UNDP is proud to partner with such a
renowned and respected organization.
The two village projects are only part of a broader community
development programme that UNDP implements in 20 border villages of
the country. Village development plans were developed with direct
participation of the village inhabitants and the local self-governance
bodies, with UNDP’s assistance. UNDP-COAF cooperation started from
Karakert, another village in the Armavir province. The projects
launched for Yervandashat and Shenik villages are a continuation of
the success in Karakert.
UNDP and partners will rehabilitate, in fact – revive, the water
system Yervandashat village: this will provide the inhabitants with
clean and around-the-clock water supply. In Shenik we will
rehabilitate the secondary school building and thus provide children
with an acceptable educational environment.
It is noteworthy that the communities constantly transform from a
“receiver” to a “partner”: in this case, communities of Shenik and
Yervandashat were directly involved in the planning process, are
involved in funding the initiatives and will contribute to the
implementation.
As UNDP resident representative Ms. Consuelo Vidal noted in her
speech: “The projects that UNDP supports in the villages and urban
areas, are based on joint local priorities and, in particular, on
those who will help overcome poverty and create jobs a the local
level, outside the capital city Yerevan.”
After the signing of memorandums, a film produced by Internews-Armenia
titled “The Life on Border” was screened: the film tells about the
life in Yervandashat and Bagaran villages that border with
Turkey. Packages of 20 village development plans were distributed to
the journalists and partners.
* * *
The story on UNDP website: ;id=326
&lt ;;id=326&gt ;
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

French in Turkey ‘genocide’ row
Reuters
October 12, 2006
By Crispian Balmer
PARIS (Reuters) – Ignoring Turkish protests, the French lower house of
parliament overwhelmingly approved a bill on Thursday making it a crime to
deny Armenians suffered genocide in 1915 at the hands of the Ottoman Turks.
French businesses fear a Turkish backlash because of the legislation, which
has highlighted broader anxieties about Turkish efforts to secure European
Union membership.
The bill still needs the approval of both the upper house Senate and the
French president to become law, but Turkey has already warned that
Thursday’s vote would damage ties between the two NATO allies.
Turkey denies accusations of a genocide of some 1.5 million Armenians during
the disintegration of the Ottoman Empire in World War One, arguing that
Armenian deaths were a part of general partisan fighting in which both sides
suffered.
However, France’s Armenian community, which is up to 500,000-strong and one
of the largest in Europe, had pushed hard for the bill and found cross-party
support in parliament.
Thursday’s motion was carried by 106 votes to 19.
The legislation establishes a one-year prison term and 45,000 euro ($56,570)
fine for anyone denying the genocide — exactly the same sanctions as those
imposed for denying the Nazi genocide of Jews during World War Two.
The French government did not support the motion, saying it was up to
historians and not parliament to judge the past, but the ruling Union for a
Popular Movement (UMP) gave its lawmakers a free hand in the vote, ensuring
it would pass.
“Does a genocide committed in the World War One have less value than a
genocide committed in World War Two. Obviously not,” UMP deputy Philippe
Pomezec said during the debate.
EU FEARS
However, some Turks think French politicians have more on their minds than
20th century history and suspect they are using the bill to further
complicate Ankara’s already uphill struggle to join the European Union.
The majority of French people are opposed to Turkey joining the 25-nation
bloc and fears over its potential membership was given as one of the reasons
why France voted last year to reject the EU constitution.
“(This vote) can only worsen prospects for EU accession and will move the
Turkish population even further away from pro-EU sentiment,” said Lars
Christensen with Danske Bank in Denmark.
“We have long been optimistic that Turkey will become an EU member, but
we’re moving in the wrong direction, which will really affect markets,” he
added.
Both outgoing President Chirac and Socialist presidential frontrunner
Segolene Royal say Turkey must acknowledge the genocide before joining the
EU, while conservative frontrunner Nicolas Sarkozy is opposed to its EU
entry under any conditions.
But government ministers fear that the Armenia vote will have an immediate
impact on trade with Turkey, with French exports to Turkey worth
4.66billion euros ($5.85 billion) in 2005.
“Liberty, Equality, Stupidity,” Turkish daily Hurriyet said in a headline on
Thursday, reflecting widespread Turkish anger and irritation over the vote.
Copyright 2006 Reuters.

Armenian diaspora bound by killings
Last Updated: Thursday, 12 October 2006, 13:34 GMT 14:34 UK
By Steven Eke
Regional affairs analyst, BBC News
>From the Armenian perspective, the passing of a law in France
forbidding denial of what Armenians consider to have been genocide is
recognition of a great historical disaster.
There are politically and financially influential Armenian communities
in several countries, most importantly the US, Canada and France. They
have driven efforts to force recognition of the massacres in 1915 as
genocide.
With Armenians so dispersed around the globe, the genocide theme has
evolved into a central aspect of their national and self-identity.
But in Armenia itself, perspectives on the mass killings are sometimes
quite different from the angry and highly politicised debate abroad.
Seminal event
One of the first things foreign visitors to Armenia are taken to see
is the genocide memorial.
The towering concrete structure stands on a hill overlooking the
country’s capital, Yerevan.
It houses a small, sombre museum and is generally a low-key affair –
except on one of Armenia’s public holidays, genocide memorial day,
held in late April every year.
Then a significant part of Armenia’s population – just three-million
or so strong – visit it to lay flowers.
At other times, the killings are part of a shared history, but one
obscured by daily life.
Armenia is very poor, and its people have much more immediate concerns
to be worried about.
That is not so among the Armenian diaspora. Revealingly, most of the
best-known reflections of the killings, in music and literature, were
produced outside Armenia.
In France, and especially the US, Armenians have excelled in science
and commerce, and have a vocal presence in politics and the judiciary.
This leads Turkey and its allies to speak of an “Armenian lobby”,
which they say exerts disproportionate influence.
But among the diaspora, the mass killings in 1915 are the seminal
event of modern Armenian history, something that binds together what
is one of the world’s most dispersed peoples.
Indeed, many diaspora Armenians passionately believe that the killings
define latter-day Armenian identity.
And it is the diaspora, rather than Armenia itself, that drives the
effort to have those killings recognised internationally as genocide.

Signatures and ratifications of Council of Europe treaties on the
occasion of the 27th Conference of European Ministers of Justice
Yerevan, 12.10.2006 – On the occasion of the 27th Conference of European
Ministers of Justice taking place on 12 and 13 October in Yerevan (see
our press release 566a
< 83&BackColorInternet=3DF5CA75&Back ColorIn tranet=3DF5CA75&BackColorLogged=3DA9BACE> of 09.10.2006), the
following treaties have been ratified or signed by the member states
below:
Convention on Cybercrime (CETS No. 185
< ueVoulezVous.asp?NT=3D185&CM=3D1& CL=3DENG > )*
This treaty was ratified by Armenia
Additional Protocol to the Convention on cybercrime, concerning the
criminalisation of acts of a racist and xenophobic nature committed
through computer systems (CETS No. 189
< ueVoulezVous.asp?NT=3D189&CM=3D1& CL=3DENG > )
This treaty was ratified by Armenia and Lithuania
Protocol No. 14 to the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and
Fundamental Freedoms, amending the control system of the Convention
(CETS No. 194
< ueVoulezVous.asp?NT=3D194&CM=3D1& CL=3DENG > )*
This treaty was ratified by Poland
Council of Europe Convention on the Prevention of Terrorism (CETS No.196
< n/QueVoulezVous.asp?NT=3D196&CM=3D1& CL=3D ENG> )*
This treaty was signed by Germany
Council of Europe Convention on Action against Trafficking in Human
Beings (CETS No. 197
< ueVoulezVous.asp?NT=3D197&CM=3D1& CL=3DENG > )*
This treaty was ratified by Austria
Council of Europe Convention on Laundering, Search, Seizure and
Confiscation of the Proceeds from Crime and on the Financing of
Terrorism (CETS No. 198
< ueVoulezVous.asp?NT=3D198&CM=3D1& CL=3DENG > )*
This treaty was signed by Greece
Council of Europe Convention on the avoidance of statelessness in
relation to state succession (CETS No. 200
< ueVoulezVous.asp?NT=3D200&CM=3D1& CL=3DENG > )*
This treaty was signed by Norway
* * *
Detailed information on the Council of Europe treaties (full text, chart
of signatures and ratifications, reservations and declarations, summary,
explanatory report) is available on the Treaty Office’s web site
<; --------------- (*) CETS : Council of Europe Treaty Series

October 12, 2006
By MATT MOORE and KARL RITTER, Associated Press Writers
STOCKHOLM, Sweden – Turkish novelist Orhan Pamuk, whose uncommon lyrical
gifts and uncompromising politics have brought him acclaim worldwide and
prosecution at home, won the Nobel literature prize Thursday for his works
dealing with the symbols of clashing cultures.
The selection of Pamuk, whose recent trial for “insulting Turkishness”
raised concerns about free speech in Turkey, continues a trend among Nobel
judges of picking writers in conflict with their own governments. British
playwright Harold Pinter, a strong opponent of his country’s involvement in
the Iraq war, won last year. Elfriede Jelinek, a longtime critic of
Austria’s conservative politicians and social class, was the 2004 winner.
Pamuk, currently a visiting professor at Columbia University in New York,
told The Associated Press in a telephone interview that he was overjoyed by
the award, adding that remarks he made earlier this year referring to the
Nobel literature prize as “nonsense” were a mistranslation.
He told AP that he accepted the prize as not “just a personal honor, but as
an honor bestowed upon the Turkish literature and culture I represent.”
The author did have one complaint: The Swedish Academy announced the prize
at 7 a.m., EDT.
“They called and woke me up, so I was a bit sleepy,” said Pamuk, adding that
he had no immediate plans to celebrate, but looked forward to being with
friends back in Turkey.
Pamuk, whose novels include “Snow” and “My Name is Red,” was charged last
year for telling a Swiss newspaper in February 2005 that Turkey was
unwilling to deal with two of the most painful episodes in recent Turkish
history: the massacre of Armenians during World War I, which Turkey insists
was not a planned genocide, and recent guerrilla fighting in Turkey’s
overwhelmingly Kurdish southeast.
“Thirty-thousand Kurds and 1 million Armenians were killed in these lands,
and nobody but me dares to talk about it,” he told the newspaper.
The controversy came at a particularly sensitive time for the overwhelmingly
Muslim country. Turkey had recently begun membership talks with the
European Union, which has harshly criticized the trial.
The charges against Pamuk were dropped in January, ending the high-profile
trial that outraged Western observers.
The Swedish Academy said that the 54-year-old Istanbul-born Pamuk “in the
quest for the melancholic soul of his native city has discovered new symbols
for the clash and interlacing of cultures.”
In Turkey, fellow novelists, poets and publishers were among the first to
congratulate Pamuk, but nationalists who regard the novelist as a traitor
accused the Swedish Academy of rewarding the author because he had belittled
Turks.
“The prize came as no surprise, we were expecting it,” said Kemal Kerincsiz,
a nationalist lawyer who helped bring charges against Pamuk. “This prize was
not given because of Pamuk’s books, it was given because of his words,
because of his Armenian genocide claims.”
Turkey’s Foreign Ministry congratulated Pamuk, wishing him continued success
and saying the prize would help give Turkish literature a wider audience
abroad.
Prominent Armenian writers also hailed the decision to award a Nobel to
Pamuk.
“This a lesson to those Turks who wanted to put him on trial. This is a
victory for democracy in Turkey,” said Perch Zeituntsian, a leading Armenian
writer and playwright, speaking in Yerevan, Armenia.
The head of Armenia’s Union of Writers, David Muradian, said the decision to
award Pamuk the Nobel prize sends a strong message. “This is a both a
literature prize and about morality.”
The head of the PEN American Center, the U.S. chapter of the international
writers-human rights organization, also praised Pamuk’s selection.
“I think that Orhan Pamuk was a splendid choice for the Nobel Prize, not
only for the evident literary merit of his work, but because of his
courageous defiance of political pieties in Turkey,” said historian Ron
Chernow, the chapter’s president.
Academy head Horace Engdahl said Pamuk’s political situation in Turkey had
not affected the decision.
“It could, of course, lead to some political turbulence, but we are not
interested in that,” Engdahl said. “He is a controversial person in his own
country, but on the other hand, so are almost all of our prize winners.”
He said Pamuk was selected because he had “enlarged the roots of the
contemporary novel” through his links to both Western and Eastern culture.
“This means that he has stolen the novel, one can say, from us Westerners
and has transformed it to something different from what we have ever seen
before,” Engdahl said.
Earlier Thursday, French lawmakers in the National Assembly in Paris
approved a bill making it a crime to deny that the mass killings of
Armenians in Turkey during and after World War I amounted to genocide, a
move that has infuriated Turkey.
Pamuk has spoken up for other writers in peril. He was the first Muslim
writer to defend Salman Rushdie when Iran’s Ayatollah Ruhollah
Khomeini condemned Rushdie to death because of “The Satanic Verses,” a
satire of the Prophet Muhammad published in 1989. Pamuk has also been
supportive of Kurdish rights.
Pamuk himself had little religious upbringing. Growing up in Istanbul, his
extended family was wealthy and privileged ‘ his grandfather was an
industrialist and built trains for the new nation. Religion, Pamuk has said,
was considered to be something for the poor and the provincial.
Instead, Pamuk was educated at the American school, Robert College, founded
in the 1860s by secular Americans, where half the classes were taught in
English. Among the Turkish graduates are prime ministers and corporate
executives.
Pamuk has long been considered a contender for the Nobel prize and he
figured high among pundits and bookmakers. His works, written in Turkish,
have been translated into other languages, including English, French,
Swedish and German.
Pamuk’s prize marked the first time that a writer from a predominantly
Muslim country has been honored for literature since 1988, when the award
went to Egyptian Naguib Mahfouz, who died in August.
In its citation, the academy said that “Pamuk has said that growing up, he
experienced a shift from a traditional Ottoman family environment to a more
Western-oriented lifestyle. He wrote about this in his first published
novel, a family chronicle … which in the spirit of Thomas Mann follows the
development of a family over three generations.”
“Pamuk’s international breakthrough came with his third novel, ‘The White
Castle.’ It is structured as an historical novel set in 17th-century
Istanbul, but its content is primarily a story about how our ego builds on
stories and fictions of different sorts. Personality is shown to be a
variable construction,” the academy said.
In winning the prize, Pamuk will likely see new interest in his work,
although there was little increase in sales for Jelinek and Pinter. Pamuk
will also receive a $1.4 million check, a gold medal and diploma, and an
invitation to a lavish banquet in Stockholm on Dec. 10, the anniversary of
the death of prize founder Alfred Nobel.
___
Associated Press writer Mattias Karen contributed to this report.

Maya Gets First Film, Carla Garapedian’s “Screamers”
Indiewire.com
October 12, 2006
by Eugene Hernandez
Maya Releasing, Moctesuma Esparza’s new distribution company, has announced
its first acquisition. The company has nabbed Carla Garapedian’s modern-day
genocide documentary “Screamers,” featuring music from System of a Down. The
film will have its world premiere at the upcoming AFI Fest in Los Angeles
next month. A December opening in Los Angeles is on tap for the film,
followed by a national launch in January. In other company news, co-chairman
Esparza named Jeff Valdez, the former CEO and Chairman of Si TV, as his
co-chairman at Maya Entertainemnt. Michael Harpster and Kevin Benson are on
board as Maya Releasing’s COO and President, respectively.

Turkey: French ties dealt blow over Armenian genocide bill
By News Agencies
Ha’aretz, English Edition,
12/10/2006
Armenians in the Old City of Jerusalem, many of them descendants of people
who fled during World War I, on Thursday welcomed passage of a law by the
lower house of the French legislature making it a crime to deny that the
mass killing then was genocide.
“They have recognized it,” said Caroline Jansezian, owner of an Armenian
gift shop in the Old City. “It’s come the time that somebody cares about it.”
An estimated 1.5 million Armenians were killed from 1915-1919. Turkey
maintains the deaths occurred during civil unrest, disputes the numbers and
rejects the genocide label.
Armenians in Jerusalem hoped that would change. “Little by little, more and
more people are becoming aware of it, and accepting it, and one day Turkey
will accept it,” said Vic Lepejian, an artist working in a small ceramic shop.
The French law must be passed by the senate and signed by President Jacques
Chirac before it would take effect.
About 6,000 Armenians live in Israel and the West Bank, according to a
community leader, 2,500 of them in the Armenian Quarter of the Old City of
Jerusalem. There, maps documenting the tragedy are posted on the walls and
pamphlets are passed out to visitors.
“I think recognition is a consolation, but nothing will compensate for the
sense of loss, at least for this generation,” said George Hintlian of the
Convent of St. James, a key Armenian holy site Jerusalem. Hintlian’s
grandfather and uncle were killed during the violence.
Hintlian said Armenians here have a special link with their tragic past.
“Our sense of genocide is more focused or sharper because we live next to
the Jewish people who went through their own Holocaust,” he said. “The
Holocaust culture is very much alive here. And the sadness that accompanies
it.” Six million Jews were murdered by German Nazis and their collaborators
during World War II.
Every April 24, the day Armenians around the world commemorate the
genocide, there is a solemn procession around walls of the Old City of
Jerusalem.
Turkey: French ties dealt blow over Armenian genocide bill
A French parliamentary vote supporting a bill on the alleged genocide of
Armenians by Ottoman Turks has dealt Turkish-French ties a severe
blow, Turkey’s Foreign Ministry said on Thursday.
“French-Turkish relations, which have developed over centuries… have been
dealt a blow today as a result of the irresponsible false claims of French
politicians who do not see the political consequences of their actions,”
the ministry said in a statement.
The ministry did not say whether Turkey, which is seeking European Union
membership, would take any retaliatory measures against France, a founder
member of the EU.
Turkish Economics Minister Ali Babacan did say, however, that he could not
rule out consequences for French businesses.
“Time will show. But I cannot say it will not have any consequences,”
Babacan, who is also Ankara’s chief negotiator in accession talks with the
EU, told reporters in Brussels.
Asked about the threat of a boycott to French goods after the French lower
house of parliament overwhelmingly backed the bill, he replied: “As the
government of Turkey, we are not encouraging something like that. But this
is the people’s decision.”
The French government said in response that as it valued its relations with
Turkey, it did not believe the bill, which would make it a crime to deny
that the World War I-era killings of Armenians in Turkey, was genocide to
be necessary.
The bill, which was introduced by the opposition Socialists, must still be
passed by the Senate and be signed by President Jacques Chirac. France’s
minister for European affairs, Catherine Colonna, said just before the vote
that the government did not look favorably on the bill.
“It is not for the law to write history,” she said in parliament.
France has already recognized the killings of up to 1.5 million Armenians
from 1915 to 1919 as genocide; under Thursday’s bill, those who contest it
was genocide would risk up to a year in prison and fines of up to $56,000.
Deputies in the National Assembly voted 106-19 for the bill, an issue has
become intertwined with Turkey’s efforts to join the European Union.
The European Commission said Thursday that French bill would hamper
reconciliation between Turkey and Armenia.
“Turkey has been called on many times … to achieve reconciliation on that
matter, and to conduct an open dialogue with its neighbor Armenia,” said EU
spokeswoman Krisztina Nagy.
She added that EU Enlargement Commissioner Olli Rehn “has made very clear
over the last few days that if this law indeed enters into force it would
prevent dialogue and the necessary debate to reconcile the different
opinions on this subject.”
A similar bill was shelved in the spring amid pressure from Ankara. It was
presented by the opposition Socialists, and most lawmakers from Chirac’s
ruling conservative party UMP did not take part in Thursday’s vote.
Turkey supporters abruptly left the parliament building after the vote
without speaking to reporters. Outside, a few dozen protesters of Armenian
descent celebrated.
“The memory of the victims is finally totally respected,” said Alexis
Govciyan, head of a group coordinating Armenian organizations in France.
“The dignity of all their descendants and all of our compatriots will now
be taken into account in a republican way, with the rules and values that
govern our country.”
Chirac, during a visit to Armenia last month, said the bill “is more of a
polemic than of legal reality” but he also urged Turkey to recognize “the
genocide of Armenians” in order to join the European Union.
“Each country grows by acknowledging its dramas and errors of the past,”
Chirac said.
Jean-Marc Ayrault, the Socialist leader in the Assembly, said Tuesday that
the bill should not be seen as an act of “aggression against the Turkish
state and the Turkish nation.”