Azernews.Az

Azerbaijani government has condemned the passage in the French parliament’s lower chamber of a bill criminalizing denial of the alleged genocide of Armenians in Ottoman Turkey, saying the decision may impact Azerbaijan’s relations with France.

The country’s foreign ministry said in a statement that the bill, which was passed on December 22, "is definitely not in line with the principles of freedom of speech and expression".

"Azerbaijan is disappointed that while adopting such a draft law, the French National Assembly is turning a blind eye to the ethnic cleansing faced by hundreds of thousands of Azerbaijanis and their turning into displaced persons on their own soil," the ministry said. It was referring to the Azerbaijanis who were ousted from their homes during the brutal war with Armenia in the early 1990s.

The bill passed in the National Assembly envisions a jail sentence of up to one year and a 45,000 euro fine for those publicly denying that the World War I-era "genocide" of Armenians occurred. The bill will be debated next year in the Senate, the parliament’s upper chamber. If endorsed, it will be submitted to the French president for signing.

The French legislature recognized the "genocide" in January 2001.

Foreign Minister Elmar Mammadyarov told the press last Friday that the National Assembly’s decision was unacceptable for Azerbaijan.

"If France is dealing with issues dating back 100 years, it should also state its position on the occupation of Azerbaijani territory, the Khojaly tragedy [a massacre committed by Armenians against Azerbaijanis during the Karabakh war in 1992], and about a million people who became IDPs and refugees."

20 percent of Azerbaijan’s territory, including the Nagorno Karabakh region, has been under Armenian occupation since the two South Caucasus republics signed a precarious cease-fire in 1994 following the Karabakh war. France is a co-chair of the OSCE Minsk Group, which is brokering settlement to the Armenia-Azerbaijan conflict.

Mammadyarov said the passage of the "genocide" bill "serves to nothing but causing problems".

"The participation of only 10 percent of the total number of deputies in the passage of this bill is undemocratic, and this cannot be considered a fair outcome of the voting," he said.

The minister did not elaborate the steps that Azerbaijan could take against France over the "genocide" bill passage.

"Passage of the draft law is currently in its first stage, so, we are following this process for now. We have to keep working and prove that this decision may complicate developments in the region."

Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry spokesman Elman Abdullayev believes that the events termed as "genocide" should be addressed by historians.

"It is disappointing that in some countries, parliament members fall victim of the Armenian lobby, which clearly does not meet the interests of those countries," Abdullayev said.

Novruz Mammadov, the Presidential Administration’s head of foreign relations, said the bill is unfair and affects France's image as a democratic country.

Mammadov said this step by parliament could affect Azerbaijani-French ties.

Azerbaijani NGOs such as the International Diaspora Center and the Union of Azerbaijan Patriotic War Veterans staged a protest last Thursday in front of the French embassy in Baku.

Demonstrators shouted "French parliament, be fair!" "Shame on Sarkozy!" "French people, stop Sarkozy!" and "Stop assistance to Armenia, which has occupied Karabakh!" The protesters handed a statement to the embassy.

Armenians say up to 1.5 million people were killed by the Ottoman Turks in 1915-16. Turkey rejects the term "genocide". Ankara says closer to 300,000 people died, and that Turks were also killed as Armenians rose up against the Ottoman Empire when Russian troops invaded eastern Anatolia, now eastern Turkey.

French mediation under question mark
France has to stop its mediation in the Nagorno Karabakh conflict following the National Assembly’s adoption of the "genocide" denial bill, as the country has lost its impartiality, Turkish President Abdullah Gul was quoted by TRT TV channel as saying.

Gul said the adoption of such a bill harms stability in the Caucasus region, in particular, it complicates the already tense situation between Azerbaijan and Armenia.