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NEWS ANALYSIS: NEW "GENOCIDE DENIAL" LAW IN FRANCE UNLIKELY IN NEAR FUTURE: TURKISH EXPERT
People's Daily
March 2 2012
China
ANKARA, March 1 (Xinhua) -- As France recently ruled unconstitutional
a controversial law penalizing the denial of the mass killing of
Armenians by Ottoman Turks in 1915, a similar legislation is unlikely
to be put forward soon despite French President Nicholas Sarkozy's
insistence of doing so, a Turkish expert says.
"France's Constitutional Council decision will set a precedent,
" Kamer Kasim, deputy head of the International Strategic Research
Organization, told Xinhua on Thursday.
The French Senate adopted last month a law that might impose a
60,530-U.S.-dollar fine and a year in prison on those guilty of
denying that the World War I-era deaths of over one million Armenians
under the Ottoman rule amounted to "genocide." The bill was passed
by the French National Assembly, the lower house of the parliament,
the previous month.
As Ankara vowed to slap Paris with harsh sanctions, political and
military, after the approval of the bill, Turkish politicians and
businessmen also intensely lobbied in Paris to convince French
lawmakers -- In France, even if a bill is approved by the Senate,
the legislation can still be appealed to the Constitutional Council
if a large number of parliamentarians file for it.
Eventually, on Tuesday, the French Constitutional Council said it
"considered the law unconstitutional," basing its verdict on the
relevant articles of the "1789 Declaration of the Rights of Man and
of the Citizen," the fundamental document of the French Revolution.
Therefore, the law is null and void, and the entire legislative
process will have to begin from the very beginning.
The verdict was not a surprise, as the law was contradictory to the
French Constitution and freedom of expression, Kasim said. " But,
bilateral relations between France and Turkey have got hurt in this
period. If the legislation was not carried to Constitutional Council
and if the court had given different decision, ties will be seriously
damaged."
Although Sarkozy has pressed the government to draft a similar law
after the Constitutional Council's rejection, his Union for a Popular
Movement Party noted Tuesday that a new bill to criminalize denial
of the Armenian genocide claims would not be put forward before June.
France has entered an election period, and it is hard for Sarkozy to
launch a new initiative and adopt that law, Kasim said, adding "They
can only take it to next parliament's agenda." But " as the French
president is over engaged to this legislation," he will "possibly try
to adopt the same law again if he is re-elected, " Kasim pointed out.
However, according to Kasim, the Socialists, rival of Sarkozy's
Union for a Popular Movement, are already supporting the Armenian
claims. He stressed that the Socialists are careful not to harm the
relations with Turkey, so they will probably not prefer to carrying
the law into the agenda if they are elected.
"Turkey really responded very harshly. Next French president should
think twice before attempting for this law again," Kasim stressed.
Kasim believed that Turkey will not immediately lift measures against
France and will consider the attitude of the new French president on
the issue. This was in harmony with Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet
Davutoglu's remarks on Tuesday that Ankara "would review the position
France would assume before lifting a series of measures."
"If the conditions, which led to those measures, are changed, the
measures will be lifted," Davutoglu said.
Tensions tainted relations between Paris and Ankara, which rejects
the term "genocide," insisting that the killed Armenians were victims
of widespread chaos and governmental breakdown as the Ottoman Empire
collapsed before modern Turkey was created.
People's Daily
March 2 2012
China
ANKARA, March 1 (Xinhua) -- As France recently ruled unconstitutional
a controversial law penalizing the denial of the mass killing of
Armenians by Ottoman Turks in 1915, a similar legislation is unlikely
to be put forward soon despite French President Nicholas Sarkozy's
insistence of doing so, a Turkish expert says.
"France's Constitutional Council decision will set a precedent,
" Kamer Kasim, deputy head of the International Strategic Research
Organization, told Xinhua on Thursday.
The French Senate adopted last month a law that might impose a
60,530-U.S.-dollar fine and a year in prison on those guilty of
denying that the World War I-era deaths of over one million Armenians
under the Ottoman rule amounted to "genocide." The bill was passed
by the French National Assembly, the lower house of the parliament,
the previous month.
As Ankara vowed to slap Paris with harsh sanctions, political and
military, after the approval of the bill, Turkish politicians and
businessmen also intensely lobbied in Paris to convince French
lawmakers -- In France, even if a bill is approved by the Senate,
the legislation can still be appealed to the Constitutional Council
if a large number of parliamentarians file for it.
Eventually, on Tuesday, the French Constitutional Council said it
"considered the law unconstitutional," basing its verdict on the
relevant articles of the "1789 Declaration of the Rights of Man and
of the Citizen," the fundamental document of the French Revolution.
Therefore, the law is null and void, and the entire legislative
process will have to begin from the very beginning.
The verdict was not a surprise, as the law was contradictory to the
French Constitution and freedom of expression, Kasim said. " But,
bilateral relations between France and Turkey have got hurt in this
period. If the legislation was not carried to Constitutional Council
and if the court had given different decision, ties will be seriously
damaged."
Although Sarkozy has pressed the government to draft a similar law
after the Constitutional Council's rejection, his Union for a Popular
Movement Party noted Tuesday that a new bill to criminalize denial
of the Armenian genocide claims would not be put forward before June.
France has entered an election period, and it is hard for Sarkozy to
launch a new initiative and adopt that law, Kasim said, adding "They
can only take it to next parliament's agenda." But " as the French
president is over engaged to this legislation," he will "possibly try
to adopt the same law again if he is re-elected, " Kasim pointed out.
However, according to Kasim, the Socialists, rival of Sarkozy's
Union for a Popular Movement, are already supporting the Armenian
claims. He stressed that the Socialists are careful not to harm the
relations with Turkey, so they will probably not prefer to carrying
the law into the agenda if they are elected.
"Turkey really responded very harshly. Next French president should
think twice before attempting for this law again," Kasim stressed.
Kasim believed that Turkey will not immediately lift measures against
France and will consider the attitude of the new French president on
the issue. This was in harmony with Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet
Davutoglu's remarks on Tuesday that Ankara "would review the position
France would assume before lifting a series of measures."
"If the conditions, which led to those measures, are changed, the
measures will be lifted," Davutoglu said.
Tensions tainted relations between Paris and Ankara, which rejects
the term "genocide," insisting that the killed Armenians were victims
of widespread chaos and governmental breakdown as the Ottoman Empire
collapsed before modern Turkey was created.