Armenia thanks France, Azerbaijanis protest bill

YEREVAN / BAKU - Agence France-Presse

Nalbandian (L) and Turkish FM Davutoğlu, 2nd right, seen in this file photo. AP photo

Armenia’s foreign minister yesterday thanked Paris after French lawmakers voted to make it illegal to deny that the mass killings of Armenians by Ottoman Turkey a century ago were genocide, while their neighbor Azerbaijan held a protest against the bill in Baku.

“I would like to once again express my gratitude to France’s top leadership, to the National Assembly, and to the French people,” Edward Nalbandian said. “By adopting this law, [France] has yet again confirmed a crime against humanity has no statute of limitation and its denial must be unambiguously condemned,” Nalbandian said.

Activists in Azerbaijan held a rare street rally yesterday in protest against French Parliament’s vote. Around 50 people from the Azerbaijani diaspora along with war veterans’ groups demonstrated outside the French Embassy in Baku, shouting slogans like “People of France, stop Sarkozy.”