Turkey’s Milliyet daily reflected on the French Senate’s passing of the bill that criminalizes the denial of genocides, including the Armenian Genocide, and noted that Turkey did not take sufficient steps to prevent this law proposal’s passing.

“We had enough time to take preventive measures once the French National Assembly had passed the bill. But we could not take any preventive measures. When there was talk about boycotting French products, the Turkish Manufacturers’ and Businessmen’s Union President and the Industry Minister announced that such boycotts do not yield results, and they reassured France. FM’s cognizant words that ‘France is carrying out a disgrace,’ and PM Erdogan’s ‘I will no longer go to France,’ were insufficient to convince the other side. Our nation, which has lost its national instincts, was not bold enough to suffer some losses against the smearing of its honor. In the recent years, when foreign countries adopted decisions on genocide, we sufficed ourselves with issuing a small message of criticism. That is why no country avoids scoring a genocide goal to Turkey. They know that Turkey, after threatening a bit, accepts the abasement. The French Senate’s decision is as much a victory of Armenia as it is of France, because not only France’s Armenian electorate, but also Armenia has put Sarkozy on such road. We do not have the influence of the 4-million-population Armenia, even on the international platform,” Milliyet’s columnist writes.               

To note, with a vote of 127 in favor and 86 against, France’s Senate passed Monday 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.