If a genocide is extermination of bodies, denial is extermination of memory, said Senator Luc Carvounas.

History does not belong only to historians, just as politics – not only to politicians, he said during the Monday debate in the French Senate.

 “We will remember our responsibility to protect our Armenian compatriots from hatred. There must be a dialogue between the two states. I regret that our colleagues from the ruling party did not support us and we lost so much time. We are doing it today for Turkey’s history as well,” Carvounas said.

In his turn, Senator Bruno Gilles said France recognized two genocides. Holocaust denial is criminalized but the denial of the Armenian Genocide does not suppose any punishment, which leads to discrimination.