Ankara considers that the draft bill criminalizing Armenian Genocide denial adopted by the lower house of the French Parliament, limits freedom of speech, Spokesperson for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Tanju Bilgiç noted in a statement.

He mentioned that Turkey closely followed the process of discussion and adoption of the draft. In case if the bill is adopted in its current form, then it will have the potential to pose the risk of limiting the freedom of expression unlawfully, especially impinging the jurisprudences of the ECtHR and the Constitutional Council of France contain potential risks of “restriction of freedom of speech”.

“We expect that the French Senate will remove the elements that may have the potential to pose the risk of limiting the freedom of expression from the Draft”, the statement says.