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AZERBAIJANIS PROTEST FRENCH VOTE ON ARMENIAN GENOCIDE
NOW LEBANON.com
Dec 22 2011
Activists in Azerbaijan held a rare street rally on Thursday in protest
against the French parliament's vote on a law making it illegal to deny
that the mass killings of Armenians during World War I was genocide.
Around 50 people from Azerbaijani diaspora and war veterans' groups
demonstrated outside the French embassy in Baku, shouting slogans like
"People of France, stop Sarkozy!" and "The French parliament should
be fair!"
A statement was read out at the protest saying that the law would
restrict freedom of speech and is aimed at courting the Armenian
community in France, whose votes are being sought by President Nicolas
Sarkozy's UMP party ahead of elections next year.
The French bill proposes to make it a crime to deny the century-old
deaths of hundreds of thousands of Armenians at the hands of Turkish
Ottoman forces amounted to a genocide.
Turkic-speaking, mainly Muslim Azerbaijan is an enemy of Armenia and
a close ally of Turkey, which rejects the genocide allegation.
Azerbaijan and Armenia fought a war in the 1990s over the disputed
territory of Nagorny Karabakh, and no final peace deal has yet been
signed despite years of negotiations.
An official at the Azerbaijani presidential administration said on
Wednesday that there was no genocide of Armenians.
"Their claim is fabricated and has nothing to do with historical
reality," said the official, Ali Hasanov.
From: A. Papazian
NOW LEBANON.com
Dec 22 2011
Activists in Azerbaijan held a rare street rally on Thursday in protest
against the French parliament's vote on a law making it illegal to deny
that the mass killings of Armenians during World War I was genocide.
Around 50 people from Azerbaijani diaspora and war veterans' groups
demonstrated outside the French embassy in Baku, shouting slogans like
"People of France, stop Sarkozy!" and "The French parliament should
be fair!"
A statement was read out at the protest saying that the law would
restrict freedom of speech and is aimed at courting the Armenian
community in France, whose votes are being sought by President Nicolas
Sarkozy's UMP party ahead of elections next year.
The French bill proposes to make it a crime to deny the century-old
deaths of hundreds of thousands of Armenians at the hands of Turkish
Ottoman forces amounted to a genocide.
Turkic-speaking, mainly Muslim Azerbaijan is an enemy of Armenia and
a close ally of Turkey, which rejects the genocide allegation.
Azerbaijan and Armenia fought a war in the 1990s over the disputed
territory of Nagorny Karabakh, and no final peace deal has yet been
signed despite years of negotiations.
An official at the Azerbaijani presidential administration said on
Wednesday that there was no genocide of Armenians.
"Their claim is fabricated and has nothing to do with historical
reality," said the official, Ali Hasanov.
From: A. Papazian