"Today's approval of the bill by the French National Assembly is a natural continuation of France's principled and consistent defense of human and historic rights and values," Armenian Foreign Minister Vartan Oskanian said when commenting on the adoption of the bill penalizing the Armenian Genocide denial in France. "This decision is also a natural reaction to the intensive, aggressive and official denialism of the Armenian Genocide by the Turkish state. They have undertaken a premeditated, planned assault on the truth. To adopt such a decision is the French Parliament's sovereign right and is understandable. What we don't understand is the Turkish government's instigation of extremist public reactions, especially while Turkey itself has a law that does exactly the same thing and punishes those who even use the term genocide or venture to discuss those events," the RA FM said.