French lawmaker receives death threats over Armenian Genocide

PanARMENIAN.Net - French lawmaker Philippe Folliot had a very hectic trip to Turkey where he led the French delegation participating in a seminar of the NATO Parliamentary Assembly. The French delegation had to leave the meeting, and Folliot and his colleague Sonia Krimi were threatened on social networks afterwards, La Dépêche reports.

The situation slipped when the president of the Turkish Parliament and the Turkish Foreign Minister attacked France for Rwanda, and describe the recognition of the Armenian Genocide by France as "populist."

"I was presiding over the meeting, so I could not answer, but my colleague Sonia Krimi intervened," said Folliot.

However, the French delegation decided to leave the meeting amid verbal attacks by the Turkish representatives, an unprecedented episode in the NATO Parliamentary Assembly, says Folliot.

"The Turkish authorities have sought to minimize the scope of the incident since," says Philippe Folliot. Turkish officials then attacked la Manche MP Sonia Krimi over her origin.

The incident did not end there. The lawmakers were recognized at the airport when departing from Turkey, with some people insulting them, others making selfies, explained Folliot.

The lawmaker said his tweets are usually seen by 1500 to 5000 people. Following the incident, however, the reach on Twitter hit some 115,000 or more.

He even began to receive messages containing death threats, he said.