The French Senate has passed a bill criminalising the denial of the Armenian genocide of 1915, a day which Armenia has hailed as “written in gold” and left Turkey threatening “total rupture”.
Whilst hundreds of Turks demonstrated against the bill outside the French parliament, the Senate passed the legislation with 127 votes to 86. The bill means that denial of genocide could lead to a one-year imprisonment and a charge of up to 45,000 Euros in fines.
The bill does not make specific references to the Armenian killings, but apart from the Holocaust, for which France already specifically denies, this is the only other recognised genocide.
Turkey has reacted angrily to the bill with the Foreign Ministry stating,
"Turkey is committed to taking all the necessary steps against this unjust disposition which reduces basic human values and public conscience to nothing."
The Turkish ambassador in Paris, Tahsin Burcuoglu, also commented that the move would lead to “total rapture” between the two nations, saying,
"When I say total rupture I include things like I can leave definitively."
"You can also expect that now diplomatic relations will be at the level of charges d'affaires not ambassadors anymore."
Charge d'affaires is the lowest rank of diplomatic representative under the Vienna conventions.
Armenians though have praised the bill, with Armenia's Minister of Foreign Affairs, Edward Nalbandian saying,
"This day will be written in gold not only in the history of friendship between the Armenian and French peoples, but also in the annals of the history of the protection of human rights."
About 500,000 French citizens claim Armenian descent, the largest such population in Europe.
The bill still needs to be ratified by President Sarkozy before parliament is suspended in February, and could still be face a battle in france’s highest court if 60 lawmakers oppose the bil.
Nineteen nations, including France and the European Union, have recognised the killings of over 1.5 million Armenians as a genocide, with Slovenia and Switzerland treating denial of the genocide as a crime.
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