Is Russia to follow France in passing the bill on criminalization of the denial of the Armenian Genocide?

PanARMENIAN.Net - "One of the relevant examples is the adoption of the law by the French Parliament on criminal liability for denying the Armenian Genocide committed in 1915 in the Ottoman Empire. However the point is that the citizens of Turkey in most cases don't recognize the Armenian Genocide as a Historical Fact. They say that there had been no persecutions on ethnic grounds, but liquidation of traitors, who had assisted to the enemy; the Russian army during the war in some way, although there were more than million of them, including babies and helpless old men and women. This is indeed negation of negation. And in this regard Gryzlov's suggestion is a step towards the right path. Facts are facts. One shouldn't put up with someone who tries to call black another color," assures Svetenko.

The initiative of the Russian legislators is quite understandable and even predictable. On the one hand, it is their strong desire to be integrated into the system of the global values and respect to the human rights, and on the other hand, it is the necessity to recognize the historical facts, which have not been spoken about in the Soviet Times. It is no secret that in the USSR mentioning the Armenian Genocide committed in the Ottoman Empire has been banned for a rather long time and that only in 1965 under the pressure of the Armenian Community of the Armenian SSR "it was allowed" to commemorate April 24 in honor of the victims of the Armenian Genocide.

It's hard to guess whether the exact reason of the idea of bringing to account those denying the historical fact was the French bill, the desire to suppress the growing xenophobia in the Russian society or something else. The French bill anticipates 5-year-imprisonment and a 45.000-euro-fine for the denial of the Armenian Genocide. If suddenly Russia passes a similar bill, the sum of the fine and the imprisonment may make certain people think twice before denying a fact. It is worth mentioning, that in the number of countries the denial of the Holocaust is also subject to criminal penalty.

As for France, things are more or less clear here. According to the political scientist Karen Bekaryan, by passing the bill France once again reminded the world where the routs of the democracy lay. In this very case the French parliamentarians were guided by the public opinion, which is not pro-Armenian but anti-Turkish. The thing is not in the Armenians, the thing is in the Turks. As it is known, France is categorically against Turkey's integration into EU, against expansion, against the European Constitution. And France is not alone in it. Europe won't be able to digest the Islamic country with the population of 80 million people. The same may be said about Russia, which has more problems with Muslim population, which according to some assessments will overweight the Russians in the nearest future.

It is quite possible that the idea of the Speaker of the Russian State Duma will so remain a happy intention, but in any case the progress in considering the Genocide as evil against