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'GENOCIDE' BILL PASSED IN FRANCE
Big Pond News
http://bigpondnews.com/articles/Politics/2012/01/24/Genocide_bill_passed_in_France_710795.html
Jan 24 2012
France's parliament has passed a bill making it a crime to deny
the 1915 killings of Armenians was a genocide, sparking outrage
from Turkey.
Turkey, which sees the allegations of genocide as a threat to its
national honour, suspended military, economic and political ties with
France and briefly recalled its ambassador last month when the lower
house of parliament approved the same bill.
Before Monday's Senate vote, Turkey threatened more measures if the
bill passed. The measure now needs to be signed by President Nicolas
Sarkozy, whose party proposed it, to become a law.
The debate surrounding the measure comes in the highly charged run-up
to France's presidential elections this spring, and critics have
called the move a ploy to garner the votes of the 500,000 Armenians
who live in France.
Valerie Boyer, the senator from Sarkozy's conservative UMP party
who wrote the bill, did not deny that, saying that politicians are
supposed to pass laws they think their constituents want.
'That's democracy,' she said.
But this domestic gamble could have major international consequences.
France's relations with Turkey are already strained, in large part
because Sarkozy opposes Turkey's entry into the European Union. The
law will no doubt further sour relations with a NATO member that is
playing an increasingly important role in the international community's
response to the violence in Syria, the standoff over Iran's nuclear
program and peace negotiations in the Middle East.
'It is null and void for us,' Turkey's Justice Minister Sadullah Ergin
said on live TV immediately after the bill's passage on Monday. 'It is
a great disgrace and injustice against Turkey. I want to tell France
that you have no value for us in the slightest degree - we don't care.'
While most historians contend that the 1915 killings of Armenians as
the Ottoman Empire broke up was the 20th century's first genocide,
Turkey vigorously denies that.
From: A. Papazian
Big Pond News
http://bigpondnews.com/articles/Politics/2012/01/24/Genocide_bill_passed_in_France_710795.html
Jan 24 2012
France's parliament has passed a bill making it a crime to deny
the 1915 killings of Armenians was a genocide, sparking outrage
from Turkey.
Turkey, which sees the allegations of genocide as a threat to its
national honour, suspended military, economic and political ties with
France and briefly recalled its ambassador last month when the lower
house of parliament approved the same bill.
Before Monday's Senate vote, Turkey threatened more measures if the
bill passed. The measure now needs to be signed by President Nicolas
Sarkozy, whose party proposed it, to become a law.
The debate surrounding the measure comes in the highly charged run-up
to France's presidential elections this spring, and critics have
called the move a ploy to garner the votes of the 500,000 Armenians
who live in France.
Valerie Boyer, the senator from Sarkozy's conservative UMP party
who wrote the bill, did not deny that, saying that politicians are
supposed to pass laws they think their constituents want.
'That's democracy,' she said.
But this domestic gamble could have major international consequences.
France's relations with Turkey are already strained, in large part
because Sarkozy opposes Turkey's entry into the European Union. The
law will no doubt further sour relations with a NATO member that is
playing an increasingly important role in the international community's
response to the violence in Syria, the standoff over Iran's nuclear
program and peace negotiations in the Middle East.
'It is null and void for us,' Turkey's Justice Minister Sadullah Ergin
said on live TV immediately after the bill's passage on Monday. 'It is
a great disgrace and injustice against Turkey. I want to tell France
that you have no value for us in the slightest degree - we don't care.'
While most historians contend that the 1915 killings of Armenians as
the Ottoman Empire broke up was the 20th century's first genocide,
Turkey vigorously denies that.
From: A. Papazian