Azerbaijan, Baku, Feb. 11 / Trend A.Badalova /
“It’s not the business of any politician in any country to characterize events as genocide or not as genocide,” former U.S. ambassador to Azerbaijan Matthew Bryza said in an interview with Turkish Hurriyet Daily newspaper.
On Jan 23, after an eight-hour debate, the French senate adopted the law criminalizing the denial of the so-called “Armenian genocide”. The bill demands a year’s imprisonment and a fine of 45,000 euro for denying the so-called genocide.
French senators who did not agree with the adoption of the law appealed to the Constitutional Council on Jan. 31 with a request to cancel it. The council should examine issue on the law adopted in the both chambers of the French parliament and which many consider violating the Constitution and freedom of expression.
Armenia and the Armenian lobby claim that the predecessor of the Turkey – Ottoman Empire had committed the 1915 genocide against the Armenians living in Anadolu, and achieved recognition of the “Armenian Genocide” by the parliaments of several countries.
Mr Bryza said it has to be up to societies, not to others, to have a decision taken based on a political calendar.
He noted truth is on everyone side, especially on Turkey’s side. The debate about this issue is really one-sided right now.
“If you believe there was a genocide committed, you can equally argue looking from a narrow definition of the word that genocide was committed to many others, against Turks or Muslims, in eastern Anatolia,” Mr Bryza said