Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry shows understanding to decision to repeal “Armenian genocide” law

Azerbaijan, Baku, Feb.29 / Trend S.Agayeva / Azerbaijan shows understanding to a decision of the French Constitutional Council to repeal a law on the so-called "Armenian genocide", Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry spokesman Elman Abdullayev told journalists in Baku on Wednesday. "We have witnessed how attempts of a group of people seeking to achieve their goals to force to adopt the bill by blackmail, have failed," Abdullayev said. He said the adoption of this bill would be a big blow to the concept of freedom of speech and thought, especially for a country which considers itself as cradle of democracy. "Armenian genocide" was supposed to be the subject of research of historians, but not politicians, Abdullayev said. "Politicization of this issue is the Armenian lobby's attempt to use pre-election map for their purposes. However, the attempt of the Armenian community in France come to grief," Abdullayev said. The Constitutional Court of France repealed a law criminalizing denial of the so-called "Armenian genocide" on Tuesday. The Council justified it by the fact that the law contradicts Article 33 of the Constitution of France and freedom of speech. Following this decision, the French President Nicolas Sarkozy ordered the government to prepare a new bill criminalizing denial of the so-called "Armenian genocide". On Jan 23, after an eight-hour debate, the Senate adopted the bill criminalizing denial of the so-called "Armenian genocide". Some 127 senators voted in favor, while 86 voted against. The bill demands a year's imprisonment and a fine of 45,000 euro for denying the so-called genocide. Armenia and the Armenian lobby claim that the predecessor of the Turkey - Ottoman Empire had committed the 1915 genocide against the Armenians living in Anadolu, and achieved recognition of the "Armenian Genocide" by the parliaments of several countries. Do you have any feedback? Contact our journalist at agency@trend.az