France passes Armenian genocide bill over Turkish objections

PARIS—French lawmakers easily passed a measure Thursday to make it a crime in France to deny that the mass killings of Armenians in 1915 by Ottoman Turks amounted to genocide. State TV in Turkey, which had promised retaliation if the bill passed, said the country’s ambassador to France would be withdrawn.

There was no official vote count in the ballot in France’s lower house of parliament, with passage determined by a simple show of hands. The measure must still be passed in the Senate, where its fate is less clear.

The measure put France on a collision course with Turkey, a strategic ally and trading partner. Ankara reacted swiftly with state-run TV saying that Ambassador Tahsin Burcuoglu would be withdrawn. Turkey had threatened to remove its ambassador if French lawmakers did not desist and warned of “grave consequences” to political and economic ties.

Turkey vehemently rejects the term “genocide” for the World War I era-mass killings of Armenians, saying the issue should be left to historians. It contends that France is trampling freedom of expression and that President Nicolas Sarkozy is on a vote-getting mission ahead of April presidential elections.

An estimated half-million Armenians live in France and many have pressed to raise the legal statute regarding the massacres to the same level as the Holocaust by punishing denial of genocide.

France formally recognized the killings as genocide in 2001, but provided no penalty for anyone denying that. The bill sets a punishment of up to one year in prison and a fine of €45,000 ($59,000) for those who deny or “outrageously minimize” the killings by Ottoman Turks, putting such action on a par with denial of the Holocaust.

“Our ancestors can finally rest in peace,” said 75-year-old Maurice Delighazarian who said his grandparents on both sides were among the victims of the 1915 massacre.

Vaskel Avedissian, 25, said he spent time with Turkish demonstrators outside the National Assembly earlier Thursday and “These people have nothing against Armenians.” But, he added, “Turkey is the spokesman for state negationism today.”

Lawmakers denounced what they called Turkey’s propaganda effort in a bid to sway them.

“Laws voted in this chamber cannot be dictated by Ankara,” said Jean-Christophe Lagarde, a deputy from the New Center party, as Turks demonstrated outside the National Assembly ahead of the vote.

The bill’s author said she was “shocked” at the attempt to interfere with the parliament’s work.

“My bill doesn’t aim at any particular country,” said Valerie Boyer, a deputy from the ruling conservative UMP party. “It is inspired by European law, which says that the people who deny the existence of the genocides must be sanctioned.”

An initial bid to punish denial of the Armenian genocide failed earlier this year, killed by the Senate five years after it was passed by the lower house.

French authorities have stressed the importance of bilateral ties with Turkey and the key role it plays in sensitive strategic issues as a member of NATO, in Syria, Afghanistan and elsewhere.

However, Sarkozy has long opposed the entry into the European Union of mostly Muslim Turkey, putting a constant strain on the two nations’ ties.

Turkish authorities have weighed in with caustic remarks about France’s past. Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan has recalled France’s colonial history in Algeria and a 1945 massacre there, as well as its role in Rwanda, where some have claimed a French role in the 1994 genocide.

“Those who do want to see genocide should turn around and look at their own dirty and bloody history,” Erdogan said last weekend. “Turkey will stand against this intentional, malicious, unjust and illegal attempt through all kinds of diplomatic means.”

Turkish President Abdullah Gul spoke out on the issue this week, saying it will “put France in a position of a country that does not respect freedom of expression and does not allow objective scientific research.”

Turkey insists the mass killings of Armenians — up to 1.5 million, historians estimate — occurred during civil unrest as the Ottoman Empire collapsed, with losses on both sides. Historians contend the Armenians were massacred in the first genocide of the 20th century.

France is pressing Turkey to own up to its history for the sake of “memory” just as the French have officially recognized the role of their state — the collaborationist Vichy government — in the deportation of Jews to Nazi death camps during World War II.

In October, Sarkozy visited Armenia and its capital of Yerevan, urging Turkey to recognize the 1915 killings as genocide.

“Turkey, which is a great country, would honour itself by revisiting its history like other countries in the world have done,” Sarkozy said.

France, however, took its own time recognizing the state’s role in the Holocaust. It was not until 1995 that then-President Jacques Chirac proclaimed France’s active role in sending its citizens to death camps. And it was only in 2009 that his historic declaration was formally recognized in a ruling by France’s top body, the Council of State.

Catherine Gaschka contributed to this article.

http://www.thestar.com/news/article/1105768

 

http://www.politicalforum.com/lates...france-we-will-come-genocide.html#post4872679

 

This French bill and the German one are stupid. There should not be any laws on the books in the "enlightened west" that go after people's right to free, and ignorant, speech. Besides didn't the French kill off hundreds of thousands of Algerians? It's O.K. to deny that!

 

Erdogan "we have cut all economical and military ties with France , we will pass Morocco's genocide by the French people" .

 

so was it a genocide?

 

Why are they in denial? The Ottoman empire was a genocidal freak show. Who knows how many people died under them.

 

^^ +1 , they still do it

 

This law is idiotic for a number of reasons. France's "human rights" record is pretty spotty to put it mildly. There are other reasons at play as to why they are taking aim at the Turks.

There's no doubt or mystery that the Turkish Rulers (note I'm not saying "ethnic Turks") instigated a genocide and land grab against Armenians and Armenia but the purpose of this particular bill is hardly to "hold Turkey to account for its crimes".

Every single country of influence out there has skeletons in the closet. If everybody started pointing fingers at the other things would descend into farce.

My personal opinion is that this law is intended to give the ruling class in France leverage over Turkey and its proposed entry into the EU, something that France's Elites opposes as far as I'm aware. (Unlike the UK and USA's elites who want Turkey in the EU).

This law also provides a handy mechanism and precedent to be put to use on new "denial laws" in the future. Pretty soon the average person with 1/2 an opinion is going to find him or herself in hot water for everything from criticising the local council to disagreeing with whatever the latest Politically Correct view or topic is that the Rulers mandated they MUST BELIEVE IN.

The law is a Pandora's Box, a Can of Worms. No good will come of this.

 

yes, it was,....

 

There are often two conflicting perspectives in these sorts of ethnic conflicts. I cannot claim to know for certain, but from what I have read it certainly seems to have ammounted to genocide. But this in no way means the government should be legislating what perceptions of history are allowed.

 

Rats to my crap internet connection and double posts.

 

National pride.
Most countries are guilty to a level.
Britain did its share of nasties, as did France, the US of A and a load of others.
You tend to find no one wants to mention their own country's naughty moments.