The French government and President Nicolas Sarkozy are against the Senate taking up a bill criminalizing the Armenian Genocide denial, the French Foreign Ministry has announced.
Responding to a formal question from a ruling Union for a Popular Movement (UMP) party deputy, the Foreign Ministry said a new legal measure is unnecessary given that France already recognized the Armenian Genocide in 2001 and that French laws already ban actions stirring ethnic violence, ethnic hatred and discrimination, Today's Zaman reports citing private NTV television.
The statement also said approval of the bill in the Senate would jeopardize “historians' patient and constructive efforts” to draft a “common memory that would be accepted and recognized by everyone.” “Exposing the truth about what happened in the past and framing our shared memory is a task for historians,” the statement said.
