UPM majority to back Armenian Genocide bill

December 22, 2011 - 14:46 AMT

PanARMENIAN.Net - The bill criminalizing denial of the Armenian Genocide is not targeted against any country, member of France’s ruling Union for a Popular Movement party said.

“The way to this day was too long. France does not condemn anyone but urges respect for the pain of the Genocide survivors and their heirs,” Eric Raoult told the French National Assembly prior to the vote on the bill which deny the Armenian Genocide in France.

Turkey has piled pressure on France to drop the law ahead of the vote, with President Abdullah Gul and a Turkish delegation to Paris warning its adoption will spark a diplomatic crisis and have economic consequences.

Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu threatened to introduce a bill on “the genocide committed by France in Algeria, where 45000 local residents died in 1945.” PACE President Mevlut Cavusoglu laid “the responsibility of possible worsening of relations between Paris and Ankara on Nicolas Sarkozy.”