Tweet
FRANCE TO VOTE ON GENOCIDE BILL BY JAN. 23
Today's Zaman
Jan 9 2012
Turkey
France is set to vote on Jan. 23 on a bill that would make it illegal
to deny the 1915 mass killing of Armenians by Ottomon Turks amounted
to genocide, a French minister said on Wednesday.
Lawmakers in France's National Assembly -- the lower house of
parliament -- voted overwhelmingly in favor of a draft law outlawing
genocide denial in December, leading Ankara to cancel all economic,
political and military meetings with Paris and recalling its ambassador
for consultations.
The Senate was expected to hold hearings on the bill on Jan. 5 and 11
to which legal experts, officials from Turkish and Armenian groups
and the Turkish and Armenian ambassadors to Paris would be invited,
said Socialist senators Philippe Kaltenbach and Luc Carvounas.
The bill should then be presented to the Senate for a final vote
in the last week of January. Its backers want to see the process
completed before parliament is suspended at the end of February ahead
of presidential elections in April and May.
About 50 lawmakers were present during the debates on the bill
before the lower house enacted it last month. The majority of the
lawmakers, including Patrick Ollier, the government minister in charge
of relations with parliament who addressed the session on behalf of
the government, opposed an amendment proposal which said academic
and scientific studies on history should be exempt from punishment
set by the bill.
Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has described the bill as
"politics based on racism, discrimination and xenophobia" and turned
his anger on French President Nicolas Sarkozy, accusing France of
colonial massacres in Algeria.
France's government has stressed that the bill, which mandates a
maximum 45,000-euro fine and a year in jail for offenders, was not its
own initiative but that of a lawmaker in Sarkozy's conservative party.
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.
France is Turkey's fifth biggest export market and the sixth biggest
source of its imports, with bilateral trade worth $14 billion in the
first 10 months of 2011.
Ollier told French media on Monday that his government will bring
the bill to the agenda of Senate, adding that he believes there is
general consensus on this matter among government officials.
He said following the hearings in the Senate, the bill will be put
into a vote one day until Jan. 26.
From: A. Papazian
Today's Zaman
Jan 9 2012
Turkey
France is set to vote on Jan. 23 on a bill that would make it illegal
to deny the 1915 mass killing of Armenians by Ottomon Turks amounted
to genocide, a French minister said on Wednesday.
Lawmakers in France's National Assembly -- the lower house of
parliament -- voted overwhelmingly in favor of a draft law outlawing
genocide denial in December, leading Ankara to cancel all economic,
political and military meetings with Paris and recalling its ambassador
for consultations.
The Senate was expected to hold hearings on the bill on Jan. 5 and 11
to which legal experts, officials from Turkish and Armenian groups
and the Turkish and Armenian ambassadors to Paris would be invited,
said Socialist senators Philippe Kaltenbach and Luc Carvounas.
The bill should then be presented to the Senate for a final vote
in the last week of January. Its backers want to see the process
completed before parliament is suspended at the end of February ahead
of presidential elections in April and May.
About 50 lawmakers were present during the debates on the bill
before the lower house enacted it last month. The majority of the
lawmakers, including Patrick Ollier, the government minister in charge
of relations with parliament who addressed the session on behalf of
the government, opposed an amendment proposal which said academic
and scientific studies on history should be exempt from punishment
set by the bill.
Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has described the bill as
"politics based on racism, discrimination and xenophobia" and turned
his anger on French President Nicolas Sarkozy, accusing France of
colonial massacres in Algeria.
France's government has stressed that the bill, which mandates a
maximum 45,000-euro fine and a year in jail for offenders, was not its
own initiative but that of a lawmaker in Sarkozy's conservative party.
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.
France is Turkey's fifth biggest export market and the sixth biggest
source of its imports, with bilateral trade worth $14 billion in the
first 10 months of 2011.
Ollier told French media on Monday that his government will bring
the bill to the agenda of Senate, adding that he believes there is
general consensus on this matter among government officials.
He said following the hearings in the Senate, the bill will be put
into a vote one day until Jan. 26.
From: A. Papazian