ANKARA. – Turkish FM Ahmet Davutoglu telephoned US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, and thanked her for her comments with respect to the French Senate’s passing of the bill that criminalizes the denial of genocides, including the Armenian Genocide.  

TRTrussian informs this, recalling that on January 27 Clinton had said: “We are, I hope, never going to go down that path to criminalize speech. The government’s using of the authorities to solve historical matters could have dangerous consequences.” To note, by saying “we…never,” Clinton probably meant herself and the rest of the Americans. It certainly is a bold statement.  

To note, with a vote of 127 in favor and 86 against, France’s Senate passed on January 23 the bill that criminalizes the denial of the genocides which this country has formally recognized. And these are the Armenian Genocide and the Jewish Holocaust. This bill sets a one-year prison sentence plus a 45-thousand-Euro fine for anyone who denies these genocides. According to the regulations, the French President will ratify it within fifteen days of the Senate’s decision. And Turkey had announced earlier that if the bill were to pass, it will impose a number of sanctions against France.