On December 7, Valérie Boyer, a member of the National Assembly of France, author of the legislative initiative to criminalize the Armenian Genocide, visiting Gyumri, detailed this topic, “France that has legally recognized the Armenian Genocide should do the next step, and like in the case of Jews, it should be able to legally condemn the genocide deniers. This is an important legal document that should be, and which will enable to avoid other genocides, because the Armenian genocide, which was the first genocide of the 20th century served as a prototype of the Jewish Holocaust.” And, as for when the MP will be prepared to present the Armenian Genocide bill to the National Assembly of France for discussion, Valérie Boyer said, “I’ve already introduced 3 different bills, now the ball is in field of the President of the Republic and the government, who had promised during his campaign that this bill should be passed. One should not think that the document voted at the National Assembly of France and the Senate was subjected to light-headed study by the lawyers; it was a serious text. The text, which was also rejected by the experts of the French constitutional law, was studied many times, and I have personally asked the experts. President Sarkozy also when he committed to enter it into the agenda, had also consulted with his lawyers. And, when on June 2012, I was re-elected as an MP, I presented 3 different papers in this regard, which were defining different approaches, so, now, no one can say what decision will be made by the Constitutional Council, which is entirely an independent body. Hence, today, there should be a political will, which was previously expressed, this political will should once again be demonstrated, so that we could find the consensus in the Parliament and the Senate, and we need to pray once again that the Constitutional Council has not put the text under the ban, because everything is a matter of interpretation,” said the author of the legislative initiative criminalizing the Armenian Genocide. René Roquet, a member of the National Assembly of France, PACE Vice-President added that she does not think that they may fail resolving the issue until 2015.
Nune AREVSHATYAN
