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TURKEY MAY TURN TO RIGHTS BODY OVER FRENCH GENOCIDE LAW
NOW LEBANON
http://www.nowlebanon.com/NewsArticleDetails.aspx?ID=356013
Jan 23 2012
Turkey's deputy prime minister said Ankara could ask Europe's top
rights court to denounce Paris if French senators pass a bill Monday
to outlaw denial of the Armenian genocide.
"This would be a historic shame," Bulent Arinc told a press conference
at the Council of Europe, based in the French city of Strasbourg.
"We could go to the European Court of Human Rights if it becomes
necessary," he said, adding that the French bill was a "threat to
freedom of expression", and breached the European Convention of
Human Rights.
"If a thousand people get together and say they are against this
law, will the French judiciary send them all to jail?" he said. "No
court or any international authority has said that it is tantamount
to genocide."
The French lower house last month approved the bill which threatens
with jail anyone in France who denies that the 1915 massacre of
Armenians by Ottoman Turk forces amounted to genocide.
Ankara froze political and military ties with Paris and has vowed
further measures if the bill is passed by the Senate or is approved
by President Nicolas Sarkozy.
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 only 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.
France has already recognized the killings as a genocide, but the
new bill would go further by punishing anyone who denies this with
a year in jail and a fine of 45,000 euros ($57,000).
Arinc accused Sarkozy of taking into account "internal politics to
take a decision against Turkey", in an election year.
Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has accused France of
hypocrisy and Sarkozy of pandering to the vote of France's estimated
400,000 voters of Armenian origin three months ahead of a tough
reelection battle.
Turkey also threatened to leave Euronews, a rolling news channel
launched in 1993 to present news from a European perspective, if the
Senate passed the law, Anatolia news agency reported.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress
NOW LEBANON
http://www.nowlebanon.com/NewsArticleDetails.aspx?ID=356013
Jan 23 2012
Turkey's deputy prime minister said Ankara could ask Europe's top
rights court to denounce Paris if French senators pass a bill Monday
to outlaw denial of the Armenian genocide.
"This would be a historic shame," Bulent Arinc told a press conference
at the Council of Europe, based in the French city of Strasbourg.
"We could go to the European Court of Human Rights if it becomes
necessary," he said, adding that the French bill was a "threat to
freedom of expression", and breached the European Convention of
Human Rights.
"If a thousand people get together and say they are against this
law, will the French judiciary send them all to jail?" he said. "No
court or any international authority has said that it is tantamount
to genocide."
The French lower house last month approved the bill which threatens
with jail anyone in France who denies that the 1915 massacre of
Armenians by Ottoman Turk forces amounted to genocide.
Ankara froze political and military ties with Paris and has vowed
further measures if the bill is passed by the Senate or is approved
by President Nicolas Sarkozy.
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 only 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.
France has already recognized the killings as a genocide, but the
new bill would go further by punishing anyone who denies this with
a year in jail and a fine of 45,000 euros ($57,000).
Arinc accused Sarkozy of taking into account "internal politics to
take a decision against Turkey", in an election year.
Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has accused France of
hypocrisy and Sarkozy of pandering to the vote of France's estimated
400,000 voters of Armenian origin three months ahead of a tough
reelection battle.
Turkey also threatened to leave Euronews, a rolling news channel
launched in 1993 to present news from a European perspective, if the
Senate passed the law, Anatolia news agency reported.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress