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FRANCE TO PRESENT NEW ARMENIAN GENOCIDE LAW IN AUTUMN: GROUP
Agence France Presse
July 9, 2012 Monday 1:31 PM GMT
France is to present a new law punishing denial of the Armenian
genocide in the autumn, the head of a group representing Armenians
in France said on Monday.
Franck Papazian, co-president of the Coordinating Council of Armenian
Organisations of France (CCAF), told AFP he would meet with President
Francois Hollande in the second half of this month to discuss the bill
"which will be prepared by the government and proposed in the autumn."
Hollande on Saturday confirmed plans for a new law criminalising
denial of the Armenian genocide.
The historical question has long been a hot-button issue between Turkey
and Armenia, a dispute that has also drawn in other countries and
earlier this year sparked a diplomatic crisis between Paris and Ankara.
Armenians say up to 1.5 million of their forebears were killed in
a 1915-16 genocide by Turkey's former Ottoman Empire. Turkey says
500,000 died and ascribes the toll to fighting and starvation during
World War I.
Hollande's conservative predecessor Nicolas Sarkozy angered Ankara
when he pushed ahead with a bill to criminalise denial of the Armenian
genocide.
After the bill passed the National Assembly in December, Turkey
retaliated by suspending military and political cooperation with Paris.
But France's top constitutional court struck down the bill in February,
saying it violated free expression, in a ruling welcomed by Ankara.
Agence France Presse
July 9, 2012 Monday 1:31 PM GMT
France is to present a new law punishing denial of the Armenian
genocide in the autumn, the head of a group representing Armenians
in France said on Monday.
Franck Papazian, co-president of the Coordinating Council of Armenian
Organisations of France (CCAF), told AFP he would meet with President
Francois Hollande in the second half of this month to discuss the bill
"which will be prepared by the government and proposed in the autumn."
Hollande on Saturday confirmed plans for a new law criminalising
denial of the Armenian genocide.
The historical question has long been a hot-button issue between Turkey
and Armenia, a dispute that has also drawn in other countries and
earlier this year sparked a diplomatic crisis between Paris and Ankara.
Armenians say up to 1.5 million of their forebears were killed in
a 1915-16 genocide by Turkey's former Ottoman Empire. Turkey says
500,000 died and ascribes the toll to fighting and starvation during
World War I.
Hollande's conservative predecessor Nicolas Sarkozy angered Ankara
when he pushed ahead with a bill to criminalise denial of the Armenian
genocide.
After the bill passed the National Assembly in December, Turkey
retaliated by suspending military and political cooperation with Paris.
But France's top constitutional court struck down the bill in February,
saying it violated free expression, in a ruling welcomed by Ankara.