France will recognize legitimacy of Genocide denial – expert

PanARMENIAN.Net - If France doesn’t adopt the bill criminalizing the Armenian Genocide denial, it will automatically recognize the legitimacy of negating such an atrocity, according to Armenian political analyst.

Alexander Manasyan urged France and international community to address the issue of penalizing Genocide negation from this perspective.

On January 23, the French Senate passed the bill criminalizing the Armenian Genocide denial with 127 votes for and 86 against. If signed into law by the President, 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.

The French Constitutional Council ruled that a bill recently adopted by the French Senate making it a crime to deny the Armenian Genocide was anti-constitutional.

In a statement the Council said the bill adopted by parliament on January 23 represented an “unconstitutional breach of the practice of freedom of expression and communication.”