Hollande confirms plans for new Genocide bill

PanARMENIAN.Net - French President Francois Hollande confirmed plans for a new law criminalizing denial of the Armenian Genocide with representatives of the Armenian community, the Elysee Palace said, according to AFP.

The new French leader thus once again raised the issue that sparked a diplomatic crisis between Paris and Ankara, when Hollande's conservative predecessor Nicolas Sarkozy angered Turkey pushing ahead a bill making it a crime to deny the Genocide.

Socialist Hollande has clarified in a talk with the Coordinating Council of Armenian Organizations of France (CCAF) that he will propose a similar law, the group said Saturday, July 7.

"Francois Hollande has again expressed his willingness to propose a bill designed to curb the denial of the Armenian Genocide, as he had said during his campaign and even before," said the group.

It said Hollande had contacted them to clarify his position after confusion over statements by his Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius.

The Elysee Palace confirmed the telephone conversation and told AFP: "The president expressed his commitments during the campaign. He will keep them. There is no change, although we must find a path, a road that allows for a text that is consistent with the constitution."