[france] furor over turkey’s genocide of armenians

The European Commission has condemned a French parliament vote in support of a law criminalising denial that Armenians suffered genocide by the Ottoman Turks, saying the move is likely to hinder open dialogue on Armenia in would-be EU member state Turkey. You follow all that? Armenia says Ottoman Turks in 1915 killed around 1.5 million of its citizens, something Turkey has always strongly denied. Discussion of the issue in Turkey has been all but non-existent, with people pursuing the topic falling foul of article 301 of the country's penal code which punishes "insulting Turkishness." UK liberal Andrew Duff said, "How can the EU expect Turkey to develop its laws and practice on freedom of speech when France, one of [the EU] founding members, is going in the opposite direction?" But the deputies hit back. "Turkey is not in a position to give us a lesson on the repression of public opinion," French deputy Patrick Devedjian stated. Don’t know what to think about this one.