YEREVAN. – The French Senate’s passing of the bill that criminalizes the denial of genocides, including the Armenian Genocide, will have a huge significance for the decisions of other EU countries, and the European countries and EU organizations could follow France’s example, Caucasus Institute Deputy Director, political analyst Sergey Minasyan stated during a press conference on Tuesday, and stressed that this bill expresses the anti-Islamic attitude of the French society.

“If it continues in this way, the Genocide issue will become a precondition for EU-Turkey relations,” Minasyan said.

The analyst also predicted that Turkey’s reaction will be heated and rigid, which Europe will look upon negatively. “If Turkey’s denialist policy continues, several years later France could pass another bill against the denial of the Genocide, but moreover with the principle of paying a fine,” Sergey Minasyan argued.  

In his words, with this step both the Jewish Holocaust and the Armenian Genocide are on the same level. “At the same time it was understandable that this bill would not have passed if there had not been French President Nicolas Sarkozy’s political will,” the political analyst maintained.

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. And Turkey had announced earlier that if the bill were to pass, it will impose a number of sanctions against France.