In EU's bill of denying genocide no word about Armenian Genocide

PanARMENIAN.Net - "In the bill of denying Holocaust, genocide and war crimes during the conflicts in Africa and the Balkans during the past two decades there is not mention about the Armenian Genocide, stated German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier at the joint conference in Yerevan. He said, adoption of the bill presented by Germany in the EU is extremely difficult. "Every country has its own laws and different approaches to this issue," Steinmeier said.



Germany has performed a legislative initiative, according to which citizens of the European Union can be sentenced to 3 years of imprisonment for denying Holocaust, as well as genocide and war crimes in the conflicts of Africa and the Balkans during the past two decades. If approved by the parliament of the united Europe, the bill will come into effect in spring of 2007. The text of the document states that every EU member-state "will make every efforts to punish for the facts of public justification, denial or rough simplification of the crimes against humanity, genocide or war crimes." At the end of 2006 the French Parliament approved the bill, which supposes € 45 000 fine for denying the Armenian Genocide during World War I in Ottoman Empire or 3 years of imprisonment.