EU raises concerns over French Armenia bill

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - The European Union said French parliament approval on Thursday of a bill making it a crime to deny Armenians suffered genocide by Ottoman Turks could harm efforts to end decades of dispute over the killings.

[…]

A European Commission spokeswoman noted the bill still needed upper house approval and said EU Enlargement Commissioner Olli Rehn had repeatedly warned in recent days it would damage efforts in Turkey and Armenia to resolve the dispute.

“Should this law enter into force … it would prohibit dialogue which is necessary for reconciliation on the issue,” spokeswoman Krisztina Nagy told a regular news conference.

Asked whether the bill could add a stumbling block to difficult accession talks with Ankara opened just over a year ago, she noted recognition of the 1915 killings as a genocide was not a precondition for accession.

http://today.reuters.co.uk/news/articlenews.aspx?type=worldNews&storyID=2006-10-12T203811Z_01_L12845165_RTRUKOC_0_UK-FRANCE-TURKEY.xml&WTmodLoc=NewsLanding-C4-World-2

Interestingly, Genocide denial is not a crime in Armenia and the Government has even moved to prevent attempts to make it so, arguing that there is no need to do so here.

However, Cilicia.com says that this is also now about to change and I think I remember reading something along those lines in the past week or so.

Meanwhile, the Armenian Foreign Minister Vartan Oskanian has issued a statement on the French bill:

Today’s approval of the bill by the French National Assembly is a natural continuation of France’s principled and consistent defense of human and historic rights and values.

This decision is also a natural reaction to the intensive, aggressive and official denialism of the Armenian Genocide by the Turkish state. They have undertaken a premeditated, planned assault on the truth.

To adopt such a decision is the French Parliament’s sovereign right and is understandable. What we don’t understand is the Turkish government’s instigation of extremist public reactions, especially while Turkey itself has a law that does exactly the same thing and punishes those who even use the term genocide or venture to discuss those events.

http://www.a1plus.am/en/?page=issue&iid=41924

Interestingly, one comment on the Cilicia post wonders if making Genocide Denial isn’t a violation of freedom of speech, and such an argument has certainly been made about laws prohibiting denial of the Jewish Holocaust.

Shafak and Dink are against it, in my opinion because it contradicts all the principles of freedom of speech.

I by no means support the despicable propaganda perpetrated by Turkish denialists in recent years but think that this bill passed in France has exactly the same effect as the Turkish bill that imprisons writers and historians for insulting Turkishness…

One of the most well-known cases regarding the latter was that of Robert Faurisson in France. Noam Chomsky was one of many who defended Faurisson on the basis of his right to freedom of speech and not his claims.

Perhaps the only day when most Armenians set aside their differences and come together is 24 April. This date commemorates the death of as many as 1.5 million Armenians during the massacres and deportations that took place in the Ottoman Empire from 1915 onwards.

The annual march to the memorial in the Armenian capital, Yerevan, took on a special significance this year – the 90th anniversary. There are now hopes that Turkey will soon recognize the massacres and deportations as genocide. As the modern-day Republic of Turkey enters into negotiations for accession to the European Union, many intellectuals, historians and human rights activists – including in Turkey itself – believe that recognition is crucial if Armenia’s neighbour is to develop democratically.

http://live.newint.org/columns/exposure/2005/07/01/onnik-krikorian/