A theatrical act took place at French Parliament, says EU Minister Bagis

ISTANBUL (A.A) - Turkish Minister for European Union (EU) Affairs and Chief Negotiator Egemen Bagis said Friday that "a theatrical act with empty seats took place at the French Parliament on Thursday". Speaking at a meeting of his Justice and Development (AK) Party in Sariyer town of the Istanbul province, Bagis said that the Turkish government made investments in freedoms and democracy and brought Turkey to an important position. However, the "cradle of freedoms" Europe seems to be going in a different direction, Bagis noted. The latest example of Europe's direction took place at the French Parliament on Thursday. A theatrical act with empty seats took place at the French Parliament. In this act, the leading star was the French President who tried to embrace racism with concerns of re-election. I would like to make a call on the French President to embrace freedoms and not racism in order to win votes and get re-elected, Bagis underlined. The lower house of the French Parliament adopted on Thursday a resolution that criminalizes rejection of Armenian allegations pertaining to the incidents of 1915. Only 70 out of 577 parliamentarians joined the voting of the resolution which was adopted with majority of votes.  The resolution envisages "one-year prison term and 45,000 Euro fine for those who deny genocide recognized by French laws." French Parliament had recognized so-called Armenian genocide in 1915 on January 29, 2001. The draft criminalizing the rejection of Armenian allegations had first been approved in 2006, but it could not become a law as French President Nicolas Sarkozy prevented its presentation to Senate. Now, the senate's approval is necessary to make the resolution a law.  Turkey strongly opposes the issue of the incidents of 1915 being used as a tool in French politics. Many believe that French President Sarkozy supports the Armenian resolution in order to garner support from France's Armenian population that number around 500,000. France will hold the first round of next year's presidential election on April 22 and the second round run-off on May 6. Sarkozy is running for a second term. If the resolution is not adopted at the senate till February 22, 2012 when the parliament and senate will recess for presidential elections, it will be invalid.