Excluding Armenian Genocide from scope of law against denial is an infamy

PanARMENIAN.Net - The European Armenian Federation (FAON) urges the Ministers of Justice of the EU member-States not to surrender to the pressure exerted by Turkey in order to exclude the negation of the Armenian Genocide from the scope of the Framework decision aiming at penalizing denial. The PanARMENIAN.Net journalist was told in FAON that the Federation sent a mail to the EU German presidency denouncing the "immoral and inappropriate interference" of Turkey. It also calls upon the European policy-makers not to "let a hateful and genocidal ideology from abroad destroy all that we have built".



According to the media, Ankara exerted heavy pressures on various member-States, especially on the German presidency, to avoid the Framework decision "against racism and xenophobia" hindering its denial propaganda in Europe. Various diplomats from the Council would have asserted that the text actually exclude this denial, to comply with the Turkish will. However, the draft law doesn't contain as such this provision. "Actually, this opinion is clearly led by a very biased political interpretation of a juridical text which basically aims to protect all the European citizens. However, it would be morally abject that the EU gives such a support to Ankara's policy aiming at downgrading Europeans with Armenian descent into second-class citizens, the only ones to be out of this legal protection" stated Laurent Leylekian, the executive director of the European Armenian Federation. The Federation recalls that Turkey organized several demonstrations in Europe to incite hatred against Armenians through the genocide denial. Thanks to the massive police presence, these demonstrations did not degenerate into actual anti-Armenian violence.



"The ultimate goal of Ankara is that - in Europe as in Turkey - all Human beings are born equal in dignity and rights but the Armenians. Facing to this infamy, Europe must remain inflexible and must secure our penal legislation against the denial-based hatred" Leylekian concluded.