French court to keep ‘genocide’ bill: Diaspora

ISTANBUL - Hürriyet Daily News

Franck Mourad Papazian, an influential figure of Armenian Diaspora, says they are going to bring a new law before Parliament even if this ‘genocide’ law is annulled.

One of the leading figures of the Armenian diaspora in France, Franck Mourad Papazian, said there was no likelihood of the country’s constitutional court overturning the draft bill to criminalize the denial of Armenian genocide allegations.

“The weight of the Constitutional Court would come under question if the law were to be retracted. Most important of all, we are going to sustain our efforts to bring a new law before Parliament even if this law is annulled,” Franck Mourad Papazian, who is also a member of the Dashnakszutyun Party, told the Hürriyet Daily News.

Following the French Parliament’s approval of the bill, some 65 deputies and 60 senators appealed to the country’s constitutional court for a reversal of the decision. The ball still lies in the court of a judicial commission in the constitutional body.

“I would not like to [think] the constitutional court would annul this law [...] Turkey has exerted great pressure on France since the bill gained currency. More than anything else, the French people would not [yield to] such an anti–French and anti–Armenian attitude,” Papazian added.
 
France officially recognized the events of 1915 as genocide in 2001. Some circles in France are debating whether that law would also be imperiled if the bill criminalizing the denial of genocide claims is overturned, but Papazian does not agree: “Absolutely not. The ‘denial law’ and the bill in 2001 bear no connection to each other at all. Some so–called experts have also brought up this issue, but that is not possible,” he said.