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FRENCH SENATORS BLOCK ARMENIA GENOCIDE LAW
yerkir.am
15:35 - 31.01.2012
A group of French senators said Tuesday they had asked the
constitutional council to examine a new law that punishes denial of
the Armenian genocide, effectively suspending the legislation.
Turkey reacted furiously last week when the Senate approved the law
which threatens with jail anyone in France who denies that the 1915
massacre of Armenians by Ottoman Turk forces amounted to genocide.
President Nicolas Sarkozy's office last Tuesday brushed off angry
threats of retaliation by Turkey and vowed to enforce the law within
a fortnight.
But the left-wing group of senators said Tuesday they had gathered
76 signatures from senators opposed to the law, more than the minimum
60 required to ask the council to examine the law's constitutionality.
The council is obliged to deliver its judgement within a month,
but this can be reduced to eight days if the government deems the
matter urgent.
Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has denounced the law as
"tantamount to discrimination and racism".
On Tuesday he hailed the French senators' move, speaking on television.
Erdogan has warned that his Islamist-rooted government would punish
Paris with unspecified retaliatory measures if Sarkozy, whose
right-wing UMP party initiated the bill, signed it into law.
France has already officially recognized the killings as a genocide,
but the new law would go further by punishing anyone who denies this
with up to a year in jail and a fine of 45,000 euros ($57,000).
Armenians say up to 1.5 million of their forebears were killed in
1915 and 1916 by the forces of Turkey's former Ottoman Empire.
Turkey disputes the figure, arguing that 500,000 died, and denies this
was genocide, ascribing the toll to fighting and starvation during
World War I and accusing the Armenians of siding with Russian invaders.
Armenia hailed the passage of the bill through the French Senate,
with President Serzh Sarkisian writing in a letter to Sarkozy:
"France has reaffirmed its greatness and power, its devotion to
universal human values."
yerkir.am
15:35 - 31.01.2012
A group of French senators said Tuesday they had asked the
constitutional council to examine a new law that punishes denial of
the Armenian genocide, effectively suspending the legislation.
Turkey reacted furiously last week when the Senate approved the law
which threatens with jail anyone in France who denies that the 1915
massacre of Armenians by Ottoman Turk forces amounted to genocide.
President Nicolas Sarkozy's office last Tuesday brushed off angry
threats of retaliation by Turkey and vowed to enforce the law within
a fortnight.
But the left-wing group of senators said Tuesday they had gathered
76 signatures from senators opposed to the law, more than the minimum
60 required to ask the council to examine the law's constitutionality.
The council is obliged to deliver its judgement within a month,
but this can be reduced to eight days if the government deems the
matter urgent.
Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has denounced the law as
"tantamount to discrimination and racism".
On Tuesday he hailed the French senators' move, speaking on television.
Erdogan has warned that his Islamist-rooted government would punish
Paris with unspecified retaliatory measures if Sarkozy, whose
right-wing UMP party initiated the bill, signed it into law.
France has already officially recognized the killings as a genocide,
but the new law would go further by punishing anyone who denies this
with up to a year in jail and a fine of 45,000 euros ($57,000).
Armenians say up to 1.5 million of their forebears were killed in
1915 and 1916 by the forces of Turkey's former Ottoman Empire.
Turkey disputes the figure, arguing that 500,000 died, and denies this
was genocide, ascribing the toll to fighting and starvation during
World War I and accusing the Armenians of siding with Russian invaders.
Armenia hailed the passage of the bill through the French Senate,
with President Serzh Sarkisian writing in a letter to Sarkozy:
"France has reaffirmed its greatness and power, its devotion to
universal human values."