Epress.am News from Armenia
This February generally hasn’t been a good month for Armenia’s issues, said Armenian Revolutionary Federation (Dashnaktsutyun, or ARF-D) Armenian Cause Bureau Director Giro Manoyan at a press conference in Yerevan today, adding, however, that “it’s not the end of the world.”
Weighing in on the French Constitutional Council ruling that determined a bill penalizing denial of the Armenian Genocide was unconstitutional, Manoyan recalled that he had cautioned a while ago that if the French court deems the bill unconstitutional, it wouldn’t be the end of the world.
“That’s the good news,” he said.
According to Manoyan, political pressure, threats and bribes from Turkey won this time, which, however, don’t bring honor to France.
“This was a matter of warming up to Turkey for not only France, but also a number of countries. There are people in France’s Constitutional Council who today are part of pro-Turkish organizations or former politicians, human rights attorneys who voted against the bill,” he said.
Manoyan is certain this wouldn’t be a political game by France.
“Even Armenia’s National Assembly didn’t discuss the genocide issue for 12 hours, while in France it was discussed for about 12 hours, which allows us to believe that [French President Nicolas] Sarkozy wouldn’t take such a risk. The new process will take a long time, and it’s unlikely that Sarkozy will manage to give a final solution to this issue in such a short period of time,” he said, adding that Armenians should work toward this aim so that one day, finally, a politically suitable time will come when a law criminalizing genocide denial will be adopted.
The Armenian Cause Bureau director added that the Armenian community of France has assured them that it will do everything possible for the bill to be adopted.