Azernews.Az

France's position on a prompt resolution of the Armenia-Azerbaijan conflict over Nagorno Karabakh will remain unchanged regardless of the French constitutional council's expected decision on the "Armenian genocide" law, a French senator has said on a visit to Azerbaijan.

"France supports return of Azerbaijani refugees [displaced during the 1990s war] to their homes, and this position is stable and will not change," Andre Reichardt, a Bas-Rhin senator and First Vice-President of the Regional Council of Alsace, said in an interview with Azerbaijan's Trend news agency.

The law, passed on January 23 in the Senate, France's upper house of parliament, makes it illegal to deny that the killings of Armenians in Ottoman Turkey during World War I were genocide. The bill, which allows for a potential one-year prison sentence and a fine of up to 45,000 euros for those who deny the alleged genocide, must now be signed by President Nicolas Sarkozy to become law.

With regard to the decision of the Constitutional Council, Reichardt said that at the moment, from the legal point of view there is a greater possibility that the so-called "Armenian genocide" law will be repealed. However, he stressed, the Constitutional Council is an independent judicial body, and it is too early to speak about its decision.

A group of French senators have asked the country's Constitutional Council to overturn the "genocide" bill. The council is now expected to examine whether the bill, passed in both houses of the French parliament, violates the French constitution and freedom of expression. Its decision is expected at the end of this month.

Some 77 senators from across the political divide made the appeal to the court. 65 other lawmakers in the lower house agreed to the appeal.

The Constitutional Council, whose 11 members include former presidents and others appointed by the president, and presidents of the Senate and the National Assembly, rule on conformity of laws after they have been voted upon in parliament and before they are signed into law by the president. Former French presidents Valerie Giscard d'Estaing and Jacques Chirac are members of the council, which is headed by Jean-Louis Debre.

Reichardt believes that the relations between Azerbaijan and France will not be affected regardless of the Council's decision.

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.