Turkey welcomes French court cancelling genocide law

Frances Constitutional Council rules that a bill aiming to make it illegal to deny the mass killing of Armenians by Ottoman Turks nearly a century ago is unconstitutional, a move welcomed by Turkey.Turkey welcomed a ruling by Frances highest court overturning a law making it illegal to deny the killing of Armenians in the Ottoman Empire a century ago was genocide.The court ruling could help defuse a potential diplomatic row between Turkey and France, but Turkish foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said the cabinet will decide whether to restart economic, political and military meetings with Paris.The French constitutional committees ruling is in compliance with universal human rights and European values that we all favour. In this respect, I would like to congratulate the constitutional committee, Davutoglu told reporters.The French parliament passed the law on Jan. 23 making it illegal to deny the killings of Armenians in 1915 was illegal.But more than 130 French lawmakers from both houses of parliament and across the political divide appealed to the court arguing the events of 1915 were still being debated by historians and making it illegal to deny there was a genocide therefore compromised the right to free speech.Turkey accused President Nicolas Sarkozy of trying to win the votes of 500,000 ethnic Armenians in France in the two-round presidential vote on April 22 and May 6.French President Nicolas Sarkozy asked his government on Tuesday to draft a new version of a law.Let me remind you that negationism (genocide denial) isnt the expression of an ordinary opinion, the aim of negationism is to cast a cloud on consent and to make sure that the crime is forgiven in order to prolong the crime, said Valerie Boyer, one of the initiators of the proposal and a right-wing UMP party member, adding she would push for another bill proposal.Armenia, backed by many historians and parliaments, says about 1.5 million Christian Armenians were killed in what is now eastern Turkey during World War One in a deliberate policy of genocide ordered by the Ottoman government.Turkey says there was a heavy loss of life on both sides during the fighting in which Armenian partisans supported invading Russian forces.