All eyes on French Senate on day of 'genocide' denial bill debate

The French Senate is to gather on Monday to debate a bill that seeks to punish with a fine and prison sentence anyone who denies the large number of Armenian deaths at the hands of the Ottoman Turks almost 100 years ago constituted genocide. The bill passed through the lower house of the French Parliament on Dec. 22, triggering outraged reactions in Turkey that argue the French bill compromises freedom of expression and utilizes a historical issue sensitive to Armenians and Turks as a tool of domestic politics ahead of French elections.

Thousands of Turks living in Europe gathered in Paris over the weekend to protest the senate debate. Reactions have erupted in waves in Turkey, which has mobilized against French products and firms in the country, and has been echoed in Europe by the millions of Turks living there.

Turks of all ages waved their red flags as they marched to the senate on Saturday, the Associated Press reported. The number of bill protesters was around tens of thousands, and they came not only from France but from other European countries, mostly Germany, where the majority of expatriate Turks live.

Turkish Deputy Prime Minister Bülent Arınç hailed the protesters on Sunday, saying it was "the first time tens of thousands of Turks from all over Europe gathered in Paris to raise their voices for their righteous cause." More than 500 bus loads of Turks reportedly arrived in Paris on Saturday from other European countries, including Belgium, the Netherlands and the UK.

Arınç also noted that, in the event that the bill passes, "there were thousands of Turks and intellectuals who would deny the allegations of genocide," to challenge the French decision. The deputy prime minister also questioned the reaction French officials would give if Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan says the "incidents of 1915 do not constitute genocide" when he visits France next.

The protesters' banners read “No to Sarkozy Shame Law,” “History for Historians, Politics for Politicians” and similar words of protest against French President Nicolas Sarkozy's initiative, the AP noted. Demonstrators accused Sarkozy of fishing for the votes of half a million Armenians at the expense of constitutional rights and, ultimately, ties with Turkey.

The demonstration is also expected to spark a counter-demonstration from Armenians, who are planning to gather outside the senate on Monday prior to the voting. Armenians consider the 1915 incidents a main building block of their identity, and their diaspora pressures third country parliaments to recognize the events as genocide and punish those who dare argue the killings were not the result of a systematic ethnic cleansing.

On Friday, the French Embassy in Ankara publicized a letter Sarkozy recently wrote to Erdoğan to clarify France's intention and motivation behind the bill, which said the text of the bill did not target a nation or state, but it hoped to fight racist and xenophobic remarks. The controversial bill envisions a fine of up to 45,000 euros and a one-year prison sentence for French citizens who claim that incidents termed as genocide in France were not genocide or outrageously minimize the killings. In France, the Holocaust and “Armenian genocide” have been recognized as such, and the offenders that deny either “genocide” will be judged under the same law.

“The aim of the law that will, first and foremost, be applicable in France and to French citizens is to protect the memories of members of our society, who have been carrying along with them for a very long time the feeling of denial toward the realities their ancestors went through, and to remedy the wounds that were inflicted 100 years ago,” Sarkozy said in the letter. The French Embassy noted Sarkozy's letter was in response to a message Erdoğan sent him earlier, urging France to reconsider the bill with regard to its negative effects on bilateral ties and its jeopardizing effects on France's respect for freedoms and rights.

Hours after the release of the letter to the press, Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu dispersed hopes the letter might ease Turkey's reaction. “No letter will change Turkey's attitude regarding the bill,” Davutoğlu said on Friday, while urging the French Senate, one more time, to block the bill from passing as law during Monday's vote.

However, the senate has the power to drop the bill before putting it to a vote if it upholds a French Senate panel decision that the bill contradicts French laws and should be dropped. Days before the senate debate, the Commission of Laws voted against the bill on the grounds that it would be incompatible with French laws since it blocks freedom of expression, a right France championed centuries ago. The commission decision, however, comes as a recommendation to the senate, which could choose to uphold the decision and drop the bill from the agenda or push on with voting and determine the fate of the bill that way.

When the bill passed through the French lower house, only some 70 lawmakers out of a total of 577 voted, which drew criticism from Turkey on a lack of courage of those who chose to absent themselves from the voting, rather than voting against what it called Sarkozy's election-time fanfare. Such criticism against the bill was also voiced among the French and the international media, saying that such moves usually coincided with elections in France and had serious repercussions for the country in the long run.

Turkish officials have, for two months, reiterated their call to the French nation and lawmakers that the bill would not help normalize ties between Turkey and Armenia and contributes nothing to the solution of the dispute over 1915 between the nations, both of whom agreed in a Zurich protocol in 2009 that an international panel of historians should open up archives and debate the issue. However, neither Turks nor Armenians ratified the protocol in their parliaments after it got tangled up in details and terminology, stonewalling progress.

When France recognized in 2001 the events of 1915 as genocide committed against ethnic Armenians under Ottoman rule, the country saw almost a 40 percent decline in its exports to Turkey and was hit by a blow of anti-France sentiment from Turkey, but ties were on the mend until the “genocide” debate erupted again in 2010.

The debate heated up again when Sarkozy gave from Yerevan an ultimatum to Turkey in October to face its history and recognize the killings as genocide, or he would see to the passage of a denial bill in France to hold genocide deniers accountable for their alleged offense. Turkey has been breathing fire at Sarkozy since his Yerevan speech, which came on top of his harsh rhetoric against Turkey's admittance into the EU, to which Sarkozy says Turkey is, by nature and physical location, an outsider.