French bill on Genocide to improve Armenian-Turkish relations, FM says

PanARMENIAN.Net - Adoption of a bill criminalizing denial of genocides in France will contribute to improvement of Armenian-Turkish relations because this is the very factor that hinders the development, Armenian Foreign Minister Edward Nalbandian said.

Many countries will pass similar laws while Turkey continues to pursue its policy of denial, Nalbandian said in an interview with the Austrian Der Standard paper.

In response to the question whether adoption of the bill is part of the election campaign, Nalbandian said: “The bill reflects the will of most people in France.”

The Minister also stressed that unlike the Turkish side which tries to engage its lobby in France to interfere with the process of bill consideration in the constitutional council, Armenia takes a more balanced stance. “I do not think Europeans will welcome such actions of senators subjected to Turkish-Azeri pressure,” he noted.

As to the Armenian-Turkish relations in general, Nalbandian said that “prior to the Armenian president’s initiative to start negotiations, the relations have been in a deadlock”.

In this context, responding to the question on possible creation of a historic commission on Genocide, Minister Nalbandian said the Zurich protocols envisaged creation of committees after diplomatic relations are established; still, these committees aimed not to discuss realities of the Genocide but to boost trust between the peoples of the two countries.

The Constitutional Council of France will decide on the bill criminalizing the denial of the Armenian Genocide on February 28, 8pm Yerevan time.

On January 23, the French Senate passed the bill criminalizing the Armenian Genocide denial with 127 votes for and 86 against. Expected to be signed into law by President within 14 days, the bill will impose a 45,000 euro fine and a year in prison for anyone in France who denies this crime against humanity committed by the Ottoman Empire.

Two separate groups of French politicians who oppose the legislation - from both the Senate and the lower house - said they had formally requested the constitutional council examine the law. The groups said they each had gathered more than the minimum 60 signatures required to ask the council to test the law's constitutionality.