InternationalFrench National Assembly adopts Genocide denial legislation
Published: Friday December 30, 2011
President Sarkozy in Yerevan last October.
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Washington - The lower house of French Parliament voted on December 22 to hold genocide deniers criminally liable, sparking a latest salvo of threats from the Turkish government that bilateral relations would be harmed.
The new measure, long championed by the French Armenian community and adopted by the National Assembly, does not specifically address the Armenian Genocide but makes denial of officially recognized genocides punishable by a fine of EUR 45,000 (about $58,000) or up to one year in prison. France previously adopted a law formally recognizing the Armenian Genocide.
Armenia's foreign minister welcomed the new legislation, describing it as an important human rights measure.
The law's supporters hope the measure will be next taken up by the Senate before it recesses at the end of February ahead of French presidential elections.
Political context
President Nicolas Sarkozy's ruling party was instrumental in passing the measure through the National Assembly and the president himself defended the law in face of Turkish protests.
But Sarkozy had wavered on the law in the past.
A wikileaked U.S. diplomatic cable revealed that in 2007 Sarkozy assured the Turkish government that a genocide denial measure previously passed by the National Assembly in 2006 would not be brought to a Senate vote.
Last May, the Senate declined to debate a bill criminalizing Armenian Genocide denial, although the Sarkozy administration pledged to reform existing anti-racism legislation that already punishes Holocaust.
Sarkozy became more receptive to the French Armenian position as his chief political rivals - the Socialist Party, which now has Senate majority - embraced the issue.
Addressing about 400 members of the French Armenian community on September 26, Sarkozy's main challenger in upcoming elections Francois Holland pledged that as president he would pass the genocide denial law.
Visiting Armenia on October 6-7, President Sarkozy spoke forcefully of the importance of Genocide recognition and said that the denial legislation may return to French parliamentary agenda in light of Turkey's continued genocide denial.
