To the Editor, Ann Arbor.com
Dear Sir/Madam:
On January 23, 2012, the French Senate adopted, without any modifications, the draft law passed earlier by the National Assembly, making a criminal offense “the denial or extreme minimization of one or several genocide crimes as defined in Article 211-1 of the French Penal Code, as listed in Article 23 of the 1881 Law on the Freedom of the Press as amended.” The means of expression listed in Article 23 include “speeches, shouting, threats made in public places or during public meetings, written or printed statements, drawings, engraved images or any other medium used for writing, words or images sold or distributed in public places or during public meetings, placards or posters exposed to the public view, or any public means of electronic communication.” The maximum penalty is one year of imprisonment and/or a €45,000 fine (about US$58,000). In response to a request from a group of members of the French General Assembly and Senate, the French Constitutional Council agreed to review and determine the constitutionality of the law.
While debating the law, French senators focused extensively on a specific event, which France had officially recognized as “genocide” in 2001: the massacre of Armenian citizens of the Ottoman Empire in 1915 during World War I in the Empire’s eastern provinces. The Ottoman Government had made the decision to relocate the Armenian population in the area bordering the Russian Empire in order to stop the indigenous Armenian militia from helping the attacking Russian forces. Large numbers of the Armenians perished during the relocation; historians and human rights experts are yet to concur if this was a deliberate action of the Ottoman Government to annihilate an ethnic population.
As the controversy surrounding the so-called “Armenian Genocide” continues for almost a century, the French have added a new dimension to it: curtailing freedom of expression and hence violating human rights by declaring that verbalizing any disagreement with the alleged genocide is a crime! This decision of the Parliament mainly represents a response to the 500,000 people of Armenian origin living in France lobbying the French politicians, even though the European Court of Human Rights has repeatedly held that freedom of expression applies not only to inoffensive ideas, “but also to those that offend, shock or disturb the State or any sector of the population”. In the United States, where the Armenian lobby is also active, the First Amendment of the Constitution that protects the freedom of speech would disallow the United States Congress to pass such a law.
American citizens should request that their Government and Congressional representatives inform their counterparts in the Republic of France that implementation of a law that establishes the denial of genocide as a crime is in violation of its international human rights obligations and detrimental to their relationships as NATO partners.
Sincerely yours,
Sumer Pek, MD