Dutch Armenians Thank French Parliamentarians

PanARMENIAN.Net - The Federation of Armenian Organizations in the Netherlands (FAON) is glad that the French National Assembly in large majority has adopted a bill, which makes denial of the Armenian Genocide a crime, says the press release received by PanARMENIAN.Net from the FAON communication unit. Denying the holocaust has been a crime in France since 1990.



"The Federation believes that with such a provision a dam is raised against denial propaganda of the Turkish government, which is painful for the Armenians. Also in the Netherlands such denial material is spread, on internet sites, in writings and also in the public debate. For victims and their surviving descendants it is cause for problems each time. On basis of the discrimination prohibition in the Criminal Code such remarks are in principle already a crime. It would be a major improvement if the Dutch legislation would make it explicitly clear that public expressions, where genocides are systematically denied with the intention to hurt or discriminate people, will be impossible in The Netherlands. The Federation hopes, therefore, that the initiative bill submitted by Mrs. Huizinga-Heringa, Member of Parliament of Christian Union faction, which foresees the punishment of the genocide denial, will be adopted by the House of Representatives. The Federation emphasizes for sake of completeness that this bill is not directed to the denials in itself, as it is suggested sometimes in the media, but to the offending or discriminating aspects of genocide denials," the FAON statement says.