Azernews.Az

France, as a co-chair of the OSCE Minsk Group mediating resolution of the Armenia-Azerbaijan Nagorno Karabakh conflict, must remain neutral and not support either of the conflict parties, French Senate member Nathalie Goulet said in an interview with Turkish newspaper Hurriyet.

"The adoption of the bill criminalizing denial of the so-called Armenian ‘genocide’ [in the National Assembly, the lower chamber of France’s parliament] really extends support to Armenia. This is unacceptable for a co-chair of the Minsk Group," said Goulet, who is also an aide to the chairman of the Turkey-France inter-parliamentary group.

She said more and more MPs in the French Senate are opposed to the bill on Armenian "genocide". The parliament’s upper chamber is expected to vote on the "genocide" bill on January 23.

"Turkey must have faith in the French Senate," Goulet said. "We support Ankara. Everyone knows whose interests this bill served, so a group of senators is campaigning to prevent its passage. If the Senate adopts the bill, we can appeal to the Constitutional Court."

Despite strong protests by Turkey, the French National Assembly in December passed a bill which envisions a jail sentence of up to one year and a 45,000 euro fine for those denying that the "genocide" of Armenians occurred in Ottoman Turkey during World War I.

If endorsed in the Senate, the law will be submitted to the French president for signing.

Armenia says 1.5 million of their kin were killed in a genocide. Turkey dismisses the claims, saying around 500,000 died in fighting after Armenians sided with Russian invaders.

France recognized the 1915 events as a genocide in 2001.

This story is published by AzerNEWS Weekly under a project funded by the Foundation for State Assistance to the Development of the Media under the President of the Azerbaijan Republic.