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Istanbul: European Liberals, Democrats Criticize French Genocide Law

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  • Istanbul: European Liberals, Democrats Criticize French Genocide Law

    EUROPEAN LIBERALS, DEMOCRATS CRITICIZE FRENCH GENOCIDE LAW

    Today's Zaman
    Jan 25 2012
    Turkey

    European liberals and democrats have slammed a French law that
    makes it a crime to deny that the killings of Armenians by Ottoman
    Turks nearly a century ago constituted genocide, saying the move was
    "incomprehensible."

    Alexander Graf Lambsdorff from Germany's Free Democratic Party (FDP)
    said in a statement that the genocide-denial bill is an additional
    burden on already strained Turkish-European relations, adding
    that apart from a few, narrowly defined and politically justified
    exceptions, assertions of historical facts should be left to historians
    and should certainly not be made a crime.

    The French Parliament approved the bill late Monday, risking more
    sanctions from Turkey and complicating an already delicate relationship
    with the rising power. Officials in French President Nicolas Sarkozy's
    government insisted the vote didn't directly target Turkey.

    Sarkozy -- who personally supported the bill -- plans to sign the
    measure into law within the required 15-day period after the bill's
    passage on Monday, an official in the presidential Elysee Palace told
    The Associated Press. Saber-rattling on Tuesday by Turkey, which has
    not announced any sanctions against France as of yet, is interpreted
    in Paris as a wish by Turkish leaders to buy time.

    Turkey, which sees the allegations of genocide as a threat to its
    national honor, has already suspended military, economic and political
    ties with Paris, and briefly recalled its ambassador last month when
    the lower house of French Parliament approved the same bill. For
    some in France, the bill is part of a tradition of legislation in
    some European countries, born of the agonies of the Holocaust, that
    criminalizes the denial of genocide. Denying the Holocaust is already
    a punishable crime in France.

    Turkey asserts there was no systematic campaign to kill Armenians
    and that many Turks also died during the chaotic disintegration of
    the empire. It also claims that the death toll is inflated. Turkish
    Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said the bill was a result of a
    "racist and discriminatory" attitude toward Turkey.

    Lambsdorff said the vote in the Senate is all the more incomprehensible
    because the alleged Turkish genocide of Armenians in 1915 is an event
    in which France was not involved in any way. However, he called on
    Turkey to show restraint, saying: "There is a risk that Turkey might
    over-react but for a country in the middle of accession negotiations
    with the EU it is important to react with moderation and avoid adding
    to anti-Turkish sentiment. The lines must be kept open between Ankara
    and Paris as this would inevitably impact wider Turkish-European
    relations."

    Andrew Duff from the UK's Liberal Democrats said the French Parliament
    is wrong to play the role of a court. "The definition of genocide is
    properly a judicial matter and should not be reduced to the banality
    of party politics," said Duff, who is also the member of EU-Turkey
    Joint Parliamentary Committee.

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