Azernews.Az

Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev has welcomed the decision of the French Constitutional Council to repeal a law criminalizing denial of the so-called "Armenian genocide" in Turkey, terming it as manifestation of freedom of speech and expression, the presidential press service reported.

President Aliyev appreciated the appeal sent by a group of French Senate members to France's highest legal authority calling for invalidation of the law, which has been approved by both houses of parliament, and thanked all people who "have showed resoluteness in their stance".

"This decision of the French Constitutional Council is a barrier laid in front of the hypocrisy of Armenians around the world and is another example of the failure of offensive activities of the Armenian lobby," Aliyev’s statement says.

The new law, revoked by the top French court on Tuesday, would have imposed a 45,000-euro fine, a one-year prison sentence, or both, on deniers of the "genocide" that allegedly occurred in Ottoman Turkey in 1915-1923. It was due to be ratified by President Nicolas Sarkozy by the end of February, ahead of a parliamentary recess for the April-May presidential election. The invalidation of the law, which was termed by the Council as contradictory to the principles of freedom of expression, is likely to help defuse ongoing tensions with Turkey.

But President Sarkozy has now ordered the government to prepare a new bill criminalizing denial of the alleged genocide.

Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry spokesman Elman Abdullayev said Baku deems the court ruling to revoke the "genocide" law as a "very positive" step, adding that if France had endorsed the genocide denial law, this "would have dealt a big blow upon the country’s image".

"The Armenian community [which has a large ethnic minority in France] put this law on discussion in a bid to blackmail France ahead of the presidential election, but their attempts have failed," Abdullayev said.