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Goulet: French Senate’s law not about “Armenian genocide”

Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict Materials 17 October 2016 18:00 (UTC +04:00)
The draft law adopted by French Senate is not about “Armenian genocide”, but about genocide and crimes against humanity
Goulet: French Senate’s law not about “Armenian genocide”

Baku, Azerbaijan, Oct.17

By Leman Zeynalova – Trend:

The draft law adopted by French Senate is not about “Armenian genocide”, but about genocide and crimes against humanity, Nathalie Goulet, French senator and vice-chair of the Senate’s Foreign Affairs Committee, told Trend Oct.17.

French Senate approved a draft law Oct.14 envisaging criminal liability for denial of genocide, military crimes and crimes against humanity. However, Armenian media referred to this as a draft law on criminalization of “Armenian genocide”.

Earlier, in 2012, France’s then president Nicolas Sarkozy tried to introduce penalties for denial of the “Armenian genocide”, but the law adopted by the country’s parliament was that time cancelled by the Constitutional Council.

Armenia and the Armenian lobby claim that Turkey's predecessor, the Ottoman Empire allegedly carried out "genocide" against the Armenians living in Anatolia in 1915. Turkey in turn has always denied "the genocide" took place. While strengthening the efforts to promote the "genocide" in the world, Armenians have achieved its recognition by the parliaments of some countries.

Goulet noted that this law is about the facts of genocide all over the world, for example, in Rwanda and crimes against Yazidi population in Iraq, as well as slavery issues.

“It is a law about equality and we had no legal objection to oppose,” she added.

Goulet pointed out that this law is not against her total support to Azerbaijan in its legitimate fight to recover its sovereignty in Nagorno-Karabakh and surrounding districts occupied by Armenia.

The conflict between the two South Caucasus countries began in 1988 when Armenia made territorial claims against Azerbaijan. As a result of the ensuing war, in 1992 Armenian armed forces occupied 20 percent of Azerbaijan, including the Nagorno-Karabakh region and seven surrounding districts. The 1994 ceasefire agreement was followed by peace negotiations.

Armenia has not yet implemented four UN Security Council resolutions on withdrawal of its armed forces from the Nagorno-Karabakh and the surrounding districts.

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