Co-ordination Council of Armenian organizations of France (CCAF) condemned the actions of the Turkish side against the young Armenian activists during their sit-in on June 13 in front of the signboard by the Turkish Embassy in Lyon, Nouvelles d'Arménie reports.

The organization said the Armenian youth was peacefully expressing protest against the denial of the Armenian Genocide by Turkish government. “In the year marking the centennial of the Armenian Genocide, these young French Armenians decided to express in their own way the decisiveness of the Armenian nation in its struggle against justice and reparation. These young activists were very quickly surrounded, threatened and offended. Four of them, who were beaten up by those in charge of Turkey’s signboard, had to be absent from work for several days for health reasons,” the organization’s statement reads.  

The authors of the statement added: “We categorically condemn this violent, disproportionate and reproachful reaction and remind that the freedom of expression is a fundamental right in France. Turkey must know that reconciliation is possible only in case it is grounded on truth, justice and if it is the result of the reparation process.”    

Earlier Turkey’s Consul General Hilmi Ege Türemen had physically attacked the activists of the Armenian Revolutionary Federation (ARF) Dashnaktsutyun Party Nor Seroont Youth Organization who staged a sit-in in front of the Turkish Consulate General in Lyon, France. The protest was part of an ongoing effort to draw attention to Turkey’s continued denial of the Armenian Genocide and to demand reparations for the crime.