Azerbaijani parliament appeals to French Senate over genocide bill

The Azerbaijani parliament has appealed to the French Senate to exercise caution in its discussions of a bill on criminalizing the denial of genocide.
The bill will make it a crime to deny any genocide recognized by France. This includes denial that the 1915 killings of Armenians in the Ottoman Empire were genocide.
The Milli Majlis appeal, adopted on 30 December, was read out by Sahiba Gafarova, a member of the Azerbaijan-France parliamentary friendship group, Gun.Az reports.
"We call on you to take a cautious approach to distant historical events which lack clarity," the appeal says.
"There is no doubt that, if adopted, such a law will badly damage freedom of speech and thought which take pride of place amongst the human rights and freedoms that are the foundation of democracy.
"In the very recent past, on 26 February 1992, hundreds of civilians in the Azerbaijani town of Khojaly were massacred by Armenian armed forces simply because they were Azerbaijani. If all this is taken into account, attempts to give a one-sided assessment to historic events could equate with disregard for historical truths.
"The adoption of such a law will cast doubt on the objectivity of France as a co-chair of the OSCE Minsk Group which is engaged in finding a peaceful resolution of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. Therefore, the Azerbaijani Milli Majlis calls on its counterparts in the French Senate to exercise care and sensitivity during discussion of the issue."

French lawmakers in the National Assembly voted on 22 December in favour of the genocide bill, which has to be debated next year in the Senate. The bill makes denial of genocide a crime punishable by a one-year prison sentence and a fine of 45,000 euros.
Before the appeal to the French Senate was drafted, Milli Majlis Speaker Ogtay Asadov underlined its importance, APA reports.

"The Azerbaijani parliament must issue a statement. A number of French senators support Turkey and Azerbaijan, but it would be better if this statement is issued. It should be noted that most of the senators do not know where Armenia is located, though they voted for this bill," he said.

Asadov said that the Turkic states' Parliamentary Assembly should also appeal to the French Senate.

"Kazakhstan is chairing the TurkPA at present. We must approach Kazakhstan about this. Some newspapers write that Azerbaijan does not support Turkey. These are groundless reports. Azerbaijan is the only Turkic-speaking country that has expressed a position on various levels, including at the level of the Foreign Ministry, head of department at the Presidential Administration. Even when on 24 December the Turkish prime minister phoned to congratulate the Azerbaijani president [on his birthday], Ilham Aliyev underlined that Azerbaijan supports Turkey," Asadov said.
Later on Friday, Ogtay Asadov declared the completion of the autumn session of the Milli Majlis. He said that 106 laws and resolutions had been passed at the 12 plenary sittings held during the autumn session.
The Milli Majlis completed its work by adopting an address to Azerbaijanis worldwide to mark World Azerbaijani Solidarity Day, which falls on 31 December.
Source http://news.az/articles/politics/51986