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French Senate Approves Controversial Genocide Law

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  • French Senate Approves Controversial Genocide Law

    FRENCH SENATE APPROVES CONTROVERSIAL GENOCIDE LAW

    RTT News
    http://www.rttnews.com/Story.aspx?type=msgn&Id=1803487&SM=1
    Jan 24 2012

    (RTTNews) - The French Senate on Monday passed a controversial bill
    making it a crime to deny officially recognized genocides, including
    the World War I-era mass killings of Armenians under the Ottoman
    Empire. The move has triggered strong objections from Turkey.

    The measure, which stipulates a year in jail and a fine of EUR 45,000
    on anyone in France denying genocide, was approved 127 votes to 86 in
    the Senate. It will now be sent to the French President for signing it
    into law, as the Lower House of the Parliament, the National Assembly,
    had passed the measure in December.

    The bill has evoked strong objections from Turkey, which recalled its
    envoy from France and froze ties with Paris after it was passed by
    the French National Assembly last month. Ankara had also threatened
    then to take further actions against France if the French Senate
    passed the measure.

    Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan had described the bill
    as discriminatory and xenophobic, and announced a set of sanctions
    against France.

    Erdogan had declared then that Turkey was suspending all economic,
    political, military meetings with France in protest. He also said
    permission would be denied to all French military planes and warships
    to land or dock in Turkey, and added that more punitive actions against
    Paris would follow if the measure was cleared by the French Senate.

    Soon after the French Senate approved the bill late on Monday, Turkish
    Justice Minister Sadullah Ergin condemned the measure and said: "The
    decision made by the Senate is a great injustice and shows total lack
    of respect for Turkey."

    Meanwhile, the Turkish Embassy in Paris warned that France-Turkey
    relations would be permanently damaged if Sarkozy signed the
    controversial measure into law. Incidentally, the legislation was
    tabled in the Parliament by Sarkozy's UMP party.

    Critics see the move by the UMP party as a political tactic aimed at
    gaining the support of some half a million ethnic Armenians living in
    France ahead of the upcoming Presidential elections in which Sarkozy
    is seeking re-election as UMP candidate.

    During a visit to Armenia in October, Sarkozy had urged Turkey to
    recognize the mass killing of Armenians by Ottoman Turks as genocide,
    saying: "Turkey, which is a great country, would honor itself by
    revisiting its history like other countries in the world have done."

    Armenians claim that at least 1.5 million were killed by the Ottoman
    Turks in 1915-16. Nonetheless, Turkey denies the occurrence of any
    "genocide" of Armenians, insisting that those killed were victims
    of the chaotic times during the collapse of the Ottoman Empire and
    before the birth of modern Turkey in 1923. However, more than 20
    countries have formally recognized the mass killings of Armenians
    under the Ottoman Empire as genocide.

    Turkey and Armenia have not had any diplomatic or economic relations
    after Armenia declared its independence in 1991. In addition, Turkey
    also closed its borders with Armenia in 1993 as a token of support
    for Azerbaijan, which had a territorial conflict with Armenia.

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