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Pro-Turkey Demonstration In Paris As Genocide Bill Debated

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  • Pro-Turkey Demonstration In Paris As Genocide Bill Debated

    PRO-TURKEY DEMONSTRATION IN PARIS AS GENOCIDE BILL DEBATED

    Deutsche Presse-Agentur
    Dec 22 2011
    Germany

    Dec. 22--PARIS -- Around 1,000 French people of Turkish origin
    demonstrated outside France's National Assembly on Thursday, as
    parliamentarians prepared to vote on a bill that would make it a
    crime to deny that Armenians suffered a genocide at the hands of
    Ottoman Turks.

    Riot police were deployed around the assembly building in Paris as
    the debate got underway.

    The demonstrators, who were penned in behind security barriers in
    a square adjacent to the assembly, waved Turkish flags and placards
    denouncing the bill.

    "History must not serve politics" one placard read.

    "Fishing for votes must not be done at the expense of a country's
    history," another placard read.

    The bill proposes to punish people who deny or minimize genocides
    with a year in jail and a fine of 45,000 euros (59,000 dollars).

    France recognizes two events as genocides: the Nazi Holocaust of Jews
    during World War II and the mass killings of Armenians in eastern
    Turkey between 1915 and 1917.

    A separate law already criminalizes Holocaust denial.

    In Turkey, the bill is seen as an attempt by President Nicolas
    Sarkozy's party to curry favour with a small but influential Armenian
    diaspora ahead of next year's presidential and parliamentary elections.

    Armenians say up to 1.5 million Armenian citizens of the Ottoman
    Empire were either killed or died of neglect on deportation marches
    to the Syrian desert in 1915-18. Before becoming president in 2007
    Sarkozy had promised to push through legislation on genocide denial.

    Turkey rejects the genocide tag. Ankara says some 300,000 Armenians
    died, and argues that it was largely the result of unrest during
    the war following the invasion by Russian forces of eastern Turkey,
    where most Armenians lived.

    The bill, which was proposed by a member of the ruling Union for a
    Popular Movement, enjoys the backing of most French lawmakers.

    To become law it also needs to be approved by the Senate. A vote in
    the Senate is not expected to happen for months. Turkey has warned of
    "grave" consequences for diplomatic relations and economic relations
    if the assembly approves the bill and vowed to immediately recall
    its ambassador.

    France's European Affairs Minister Jean Leonetti downplayed the
    possible fallout on France Inter Radio, calling Turkey's threatened
    reprisals "empty threats."



    From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress
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