French genocide law a 'bad mistake' says Finnish FM
The French law criminalising the denial of the Armenian genocide during the first world war is a "bad mistake" says the Finnish foreign minister, explaining that historical truths should not be up to politicians to decide.
"Legislators should never interfere with this kind of open and introspective soul-searching and the debates it fosters," Erkki Tuomioja writes on his internet blog, as Finland currently holds the rotating EU presidency.
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"Unfortunately the French National Assembly has not respected this," he said.
The socialist-drafted law was passed by 106 votes to 19 in the lower house last week and found favour on both sides of the political divide although president Jacques Chirac's conservative government is against it.
The legislation - which must still go through France's upper house before it comes into force - follows on the heels of a 2001 National Assembly resolution which recognised the massacre of Armenians by the Ottoman Turks as genocide.
But the new bill proposes making Armenia genocide denial punishable by up to one year in prison and a fine of €45,000.
"This legislation is a bad mistake and it should be quickly revoked," Mr Tuomioja wrote. "Parliaments and governments should not … ever attempt to legislate on what historical truths are allowed and which are declared illegal."
"For the record I do not consider genocide an exaggerated description for what happened, and I wish the Turks were more ready to recognise this by now," he added.
Orhan Pamuk
The minister explained that the EU has repeatedly called on Turkey to repeal the notorious article 301 of its criminal code, which has been used to bring charges against Nobel-prize winner Orhan Pamuk along with scores of less well-known Turks for expressing opinions deemed insulting to the Turkish state.
"Now the conservative forces in Turkey can dismiss these calls and question the right of the EU to demand this, as France has just adopted comparable legislation," the Finnish minister stressed.
Both Brussels and Ankara have condemned the law, saying the move is likely to hinder open dialogue on Armenia in would-be EU member state Turkey.
Mr Tuomioja is also against laws criminalising the denial of the Jewish Holocaust during the Second World War, which many EU countries put in place years ago.
"Such legislation is not defensible either. While Holocaust-denial is almost exclusively associated with anti-Semitism, other laws on the statute books criminalising racist incitement against and defaming of any and all ethnic groups are sufficient to deal with this," he pointed out in his online diary.