The French Parliament again passed a bill criminalizing the denial of the Armenian Genocide. Five years ago it passed a similar bill which did not pass in the French Senate. Now again we’ll wait to see if it passes in the French Senate in order to become actual law. It is already against the law to deny the Jewish Holocaust.
Five years ago, and once again today Turkey made a lot of threats and had a massive temper tantrum. This of course causes massive publicity for the bill, and brings a great deal of free publicity to the facts of the Armenian Genocide, and exposes many new people to this once forgotten chapter of history.
Some argue that this limits free speech, but let me point out the following facts before you decide.
- It is already against the law to deny the Jewish Holocaust in France
- Hate speech not protected in many “free” countries, and genocide denial is certainly hateful
- The Armenian Genocide and Jewish Holocaust have both been subjected to international campaigns of denial. The former run by the Turkish Government and the latter by Neo-Nazi groups.
- For years the efforts of the Turkish government achieved great success in squashing all public discourse or recognition of the Armenian Genocide.
- The eighth stage of genocide is widely accepted to be the stage of denial. Therefore, I feel strongly that to deny a genocide is to contribute to the last stage of genocide. In other words, Genocide denial is an act of genocide, and is technically already against the law in any country that accepts the genocide convention.
I appreciate this step by the French. It is disgraceful that Turkey continues to deny this chapter of history, and this type of bill will slowly help them recognize that the costs of their hateful denial are actually higher than recognition.