The French Senate is finishing the discussion on the bill banning the denial of genocides. The Senators’ opinions are quite controversial.
Patrick Olier, the Minister for Relations with Parliament, stated during the discussion at the plenary meeting of the French parliament’s upper house, the Senate, on the bill banning the denial of genocides that the French Cabinet reasserted its position expressed at the end of last year that denying genocides had to be legally punished on the territory of the country. “The bill banning the denial of genocides is not a threat to the right to freedom of expression, since it is against the extremes of doubting the fact of the Armenian Genocide”, stated Senator Hervé Marseille from the Centrist and Republican Union.
The opinion of Jean-Pierre Sueur, the head of the Senate legislative commission, was the opposite, “Number one issue today is the following, whether the criminal code should determine which historical event is to be a subject of public discussion and which not. Whether our power as legislators continues to be raising historical issues.”
Ruben Safrastyan, the director of the Oriental Studies Institute, said during a conversation with Aravot.am that ifFranceratified the bill, it would mean that the country continued carrying out its civilized mission. He thinks that if France responds positively to that bill, many European countries will start to seriously think of recognizing the genocide and some countries, following France’s example, will also start taking steps toward banning the denial of the genocide, “The genocide that is the most serious crime against humanity and banning its denial may be not only a moral decision, but also a decision influencing the future, since it creates a good opportunity for preventing genocides. Thus,Francegives both moral and legal assessment to those who deny the genocide. The criminalization will have an important impact all over Europe, because many European countries perceiveFranceas a leading country and it will contribute to the process of recognizing the Armenian Genocide. By passing the bill, the possibilities ofTurkeyto deny the Armenian Genocide at the state level will be limited.”
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During the discussion, as well as after passing the bill in the French parliament, the Turkish side expressed notions that passing the bill infringed human rights and the right to freedom of speech. Let us remind that Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan stated that if the bill was passed, he wouldn’t set foot inFranceanymore. R. Safrastyan doesn’t share this notion. “The Turkish propaganda tries to distort the reality at various levels and tries to show that passing the bill means infringement of the right to freedom of speech. A country likeTurkeyis so far behindFrancein terms of economy that whatever she does, she will suffer more losses. And the Turks understand that quite well, since in 2000s, when the French parliament passed a bill on the Armenian Genocide, the Turks tried to impose sanctions againstFrance, but it lasted for a very short time and in a few months everything was restored and the trade between the two countries developed further. Therefore, I think that this timeTurkeywill also take some steps, butFrancewill not suffer any serious losses,Turkeywill suffer more losses”, concluded R. Safrastyan and expressed hope that the French Senate will, nonetheless, approve the bill.