Turkey is hardly in a position to preach about free speech, says a report in The Economist.

Its own laws, in a mirror image of the French proposal, prohibit descriptions of the 1915 killings as genocide. More than 100 journalists are in jail, many of them on flimsy charges of backing terrorism, it says.

As for Mr Sarkozy’s manoeuvres, many Armenians would say they are no more cynical than Turkey’s decision in 2009 to sign a set of protocols establishing formal ties and reopening borders with Armenia just as the United States Congress was gearing up to pass a genocide-recognition bill. In the event Barack Obama convinced American lawmakers to desist, the report says.

It also says that Turkey promptly shelved the protocols, reverting to its old line linking reconciliation to resolution of the Nagorno Karabakh conflict.

On December 22, 2011, French National Assembly passed a bill criminalizing public denial of the Armenian Genocide. If passed and signed into law by the Senate, the bill would 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. Following the vote, Ankara recalled its ambassador from France.