Tuesday, January 24, 2012

Turkish PM Erdogan Blasts French Genocide Bill; Bill Makes It a Crime to Deny Turkish Genocide

The France 24 website reports that Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan blasted French lawmakers today (January 24, 2012) for being "racist and discriminatory" after the Senate passed a bill that would outlaw denying the 1915 massacre of Armenians in Turkey amounted to genocide. Erdogan threatened France that Turkey will retaliate any way it can.

The bill -- which French President Nicolas Sarkozy is expected to sign into law soon -- includes the massacre of some one and one-half million ethnic Armenians by Ottoman Turk forces in 1915.

Once the bill becomes a law, it will criminalize publicly denying that the mass killing of ethnic Armenians by Ottoman Turk forces in 1915 was a deliberately organized genocide.

Armenian Foreign Minister Edward Nalbandian said the Senate vote -- which was passed by 127 to 86 -- was a day that "will be written in gold."

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