French lawmakers adopt bill making it a crime to deny Armenian deaths were genocide AP Photo ANK101

PARIS (AP) French lawmakers on Thursday adopted a bill making it a crime to deny that mass killings of Armenians in Turkey during and after World War I amounted to genocide. Deputies in the National Assembly voted 106-19 for the bill, which had prompted outrage in Turkey and had embarrased the French government. The issue had become intertwined with Turkey's efforts to join the European Union. The bill must still be passed by the Senate and be signed by President Jacques Chirac. France's minister for European affairs, Catherine Colonna, said right before the vote that the government did not look favorably on the bill. "It is not for the law to write history" she said in parliament. The French bill would recognize the killings of up to 1.5 million Armenians from 1915 to 1919 as genocide, and those who contest a genocide would risk up to a year in prison and fines of up to euro45,000 (US$56,000). Armenia accuses Turkey of massacring Armenians during World War I, when Armenia was under the Ottoman Empire. Turkey says Armenians were killed in civil unrest during the collapse of the empire.

That's ridiculous.

:confused:

Yes, shame on France to did it and it's like they are discovered this fact suddenly, after almost 90 years they discovered it. They just want Turky joining the EU but after years of prejudice and I don't know why they want Turky make many relinquishment. It's also came along with the winning of Orhan Pamuk by Nobel Prize just to make more stress on Turky to change it's identity

^it's sad that many people in my country (me also) are not proud of orhan pamuk's success(?)... i don't think he deserved it in fact.. the speech in which he stated that, about 1 million Armenians and some thousands of Kurds were killed in Turkey, has played a big role in winning the nobel.. since the topic is related: shame on Orhan Pamuk, too..

uh... mass killings=genocide

mass killing of armenians=genocide in turkey

 

so um....how is this NOT genocide? please explain. you can't deny history.

uh... mass killings=genocide

mass killing of armenians=genocide in turkey

 

so um....how is this NOT genocide? please explain. you can't deny history.

 

 

But you can deny the false history

uh... mass killings=genocide

mass killing of armenians=genocide in turkey

 

so um....how is this NOT genocide? please explain. you can't deny history.

****Quoted passage****

 

It is unjustified to label as “genocide”, the events that took place within the Ottoman State of 1915, which caused great loss of life for both the Turkish and Armenian communities and resulted with the forced relocation of the majority of the Armenian people to other provinces of the Empire. Moreover, to base this allegation on falsified documents, faked pictures and exaggerated figures only distorts history and the definition of ‘genocide’.

 

With a view to weakening and dismembering the Ottoman State, Russia and Great Britain instigated one of the main ethnic groups of the Ottoman State, the Armenians to uprise in the eastern parts of the Empire. The Armenian gangs, which were created earlier, intensified their actions, and as a result, sporadic clashes were seen between the Muslim and Armenian settlements. When the Russian army invaded Eastern Anatolia in 1915, the Armenian terrorist gangs, side by side with the Russian army, started launching systematic attacks against not only Ottoman troops, but also their civilian Muslim fellow countrymen. In addition to these attacks, the Armenian gangs also assisted the Russians by cutting supply lines of the Ottoman army, which was fighting with an invading force. Under the circumstances, the Ottoman Government decided to relocate the Armenians that were living in the war theatre to the other provinces in the Empire. The rationale for this decision was twofold: to prevent the inter-communal massacres, and cut the support extended by the Armenian towns to the Russians. During the period in discussion, hostilities, famine, ailments and brigandage heavily affected all of the communities living in Eastern Anatolia. Innocent civilians lost their lives during this migration, which took place under difficult winter conditions and in a general environment of hostility.

 

These are the consequences of a war of unprecedented magnitude. Neither the distress of the Turks nor of the Armenians can be singled out. These painful experiences were only part of the tragedy to which the whole Anatolian population was subjected.

 

Indeed, the fact that the same events did not affect tens of thousands of Armenian subjects of the Ottoman Empire, living in İstanbul is the strongest evidence why this incident cannot be labelled as ‘genocide’. It is also worth mentioning, in order to underline the falseness of the allegations, that 22 ethnic Armenians served as Ministers in Ottoman Governments during the 19th century, and that in the time frame subject to those claims, an Armenian, Noradounghian Efendi, served as the Ottoman Foreign Minister.

 

*********************

 

i don't deny the history. what is the real history by the way? where do you know? from your history teachers/books? history is written in the governments' documents.

(http://www.devletarsivleri.gov.tr/kitap/ -- select a link from left and pdf's are real documents from the government archives)

(http://www.devletarsivleri.gov.tr/yayin/osmanli/o_b_ermeniler/obermeniler.htm)

 

(i'm sorry i can't translate them..i know, they will probably seem meaningless to you but i don't have time to translate..:\) its up to you whether to believe what you've heard so far from your teachers/books/media or the official documents..

 

Turkish government has invited Turkish, Armenian and international historians to form a Commission to establish the events of 1915, recently. The offer was rejected by Armenia and its foreign minister...guess why?

 

 

i suggest you to read this article..you can find the answers of some questions:

http://www.ataa.org/ataa/ref/armenian/fein.html

 

from the article:

 

..."Was there an intent to exterminate Ottoman Armenians in whole or in part?"...

 

 

...The United Nations Economic and Social Council Sub-Commission on the Prevention of Discrimination and Protection of Minorities examined the truthfulness of an Armenian genocide charge leveled by Special Rapporteur, Mr. Benjamin Whitaker, in his submission, "Study of Genocide," during its thirty-eighth session at the U.N. Office in Geneva from August 5-30, 1985. The Sub-Commission after meticulous debate refused to endorse the indictment for lack of convincing evidence, as amplified by attendee and Professor Dr. Ataöv of Ankara University in his publication, "WHAT REALLY HAPPENED IN GENEVA: The Truth About the 'Whitaker Report'."...

 

...If the evidence is so demonstratively faulty, what explains a widespread credence given to the Armenian genocide allegation in the United States?...

Apparently some people think you can.

 

i agree...totally.

by the way, i am not a historian nor am i very interested in history/politics... however being accused of something you you've never done is kinda disturbing..

if you want i can write some historical events occured in ottoman empire..how our relations with armenians were good until the 19th century... although they have never set an independent state in the history,how armenians were promoted to high-importance positions in the ottoman empire... and what did ottoman sultans do to the resident public/minorities in the cities they invaded, did they treat them as if they weren't humanbeings or did they give them a lot of rights ( here i want to emphasize a point: we're talking about 15th,16th centuries..i mean there is nothing called human rights at that ages.. and compare them with current invasions/wars... )

 

in fact so-called armenian genocide was not the subject i wanted to mention in this topic... it's just ridiculous that a country, known to be a leading democratic one and known to have an "ultimate" liberal and equal policy, can make such "liberal" laws...