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CYPRUS CRIMINALISES 'ARMENIAN GENOCIDE' DENIAL
Yahoo! News
April 2 2015
Nicosia (AFP) - The Cypriot parliament unanimously approved Thursday
a law that makes it a crime to deny that mass killings of Armenians
under the Ottoman Empire in 1915 amounted to genocide.
The law also establishes April 24, the date the killings began,
as a national day of remembrance in Cyprus, much of whose Armenian
community descends from survivors of the killings.
Cyprus itself was Ottoman until coming under British rule in the 19th
century and has been at odds with Turkey, the empire's successor,
since being invaded by it in 1974 after a coup aimed at uniting the
island with Greece.
Armenia says an estimated 1.5 million people were killed by Ottoman
forces in what it calls a genocide.
Turkey, which rejects the term "genocide," puts the death toll at
500,000, blaming it on World War I raging at the time and starvation.
Around 20 nations, including France and Russia, recognise the killings
as genocide.
The measure is an amendment to existing legislation against racism,
hate crimes and xenophobic behaviour.
Parliamentary speaker Yiannakis Omirou called the vote "historic"
and said the legislation enables parliament "to restore, by decisions
and resolutions, the historical truth".
He said the massacres constituted "one of the largest and most heinous
crimes in the modern history of mankind".
"Despite the recording of these events by hundreds of independent
witnesses, the Armenian genocide has only been recognised by a small
number of countries," added Omirou.
Cyprus also claims that the 1974 Turkish invasion and seizure of the
island's northern third was tantamount to ethnic cleansing, splitting
the country between a Turkish Cypriot north and Greek Cypriot south.
http://news.yahoo.com/cyprus-criminalises-armenian-genocide-denial-192532729.html
Yahoo! News
April 2 2015
Nicosia (AFP) - The Cypriot parliament unanimously approved Thursday
a law that makes it a crime to deny that mass killings of Armenians
under the Ottoman Empire in 1915 amounted to genocide.
The law also establishes April 24, the date the killings began,
as a national day of remembrance in Cyprus, much of whose Armenian
community descends from survivors of the killings.
Cyprus itself was Ottoman until coming under British rule in the 19th
century and has been at odds with Turkey, the empire's successor,
since being invaded by it in 1974 after a coup aimed at uniting the
island with Greece.
Armenia says an estimated 1.5 million people were killed by Ottoman
forces in what it calls a genocide.
Turkey, which rejects the term "genocide," puts the death toll at
500,000, blaming it on World War I raging at the time and starvation.
Around 20 nations, including France and Russia, recognise the killings
as genocide.
The measure is an amendment to existing legislation against racism,
hate crimes and xenophobic behaviour.
Parliamentary speaker Yiannakis Omirou called the vote "historic"
and said the legislation enables parliament "to restore, by decisions
and resolutions, the historical truth".
He said the massacres constituted "one of the largest and most heinous
crimes in the modern history of mankind".
"Despite the recording of these events by hundreds of independent
witnesses, the Armenian genocide has only been recognised by a small
number of countries," added Omirou.
Cyprus also claims that the 1974 Turkish invasion and seizure of the
island's northern third was tantamount to ethnic cleansing, splitting
the country between a Turkish Cypriot north and Greek Cypriot south.
http://news.yahoo.com/cyprus-criminalises-armenian-genocide-denial-192532729.html