French Constitutional Council’s decision on bill criminalizing denial of the Armenian Genocide was solely a political one and the bill does not contradict to the Constitution in fact, head of the Armenian Revolutionary Federation Dashnaktsutyun in France Mourad Papazian claims. 

According to him, if the issue is viewed on that angle, there are other laws in France, which contradict to the freedom of speech, for example the law on Holocaust. However, it is extremely important to have such laws.

“We elaborated a bill criminalizing denial of the Genocide back in 2006, while Turkish organizations, with the direct support of their government, launched anti-Armenian actions. Their goal was not to allow the fact of the Armenian Genocide to have any place in France. Besides, the French National Assembly (NA) included the Genocide bill in its agenda in the same year. However, it failed, as the NA head was incumbent head of the Council Jean-Louis Debré,” Papazian reminded the development of the bill history in France adding majority of the Council members spoke against the bill.

Head of the Hay Dat (Armenian Cause) office in France Hrachya Varzhapetian stressed some other interesting news, claiming that two members of the Council had ‘personal economic interests in Turkey.’ Besides, the whole process proved a moral victory of the Armenian nation as 300 MPs voted for the bill and just 11 members of the Council were against it.

Another interesting case provoking the bill was that French society was divided into 80% pro Armenians and 20% pro Turks. In case of media and politicians the difference was almost equal. According to French media outlets, Turkey spend $100 million only this year to break down the bill on the Armenian Genocide in France.