Azerbaijan welcomes French council's decision

BAKU (A.A) - February 29, 2012 - Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry welcomed on Wednesday the French Constitutional Council's decision to annul the law criminalizing denial of Armenian allegations regarding incidents of 1915. The ministry's spokesperson, Elman Abdullayev, said Azerbaijan had seen that efforts of a group of people to make a parliament accept their own intentions through blackmail were in vain. "Had the French Constitutional Council ratified the law, it would have been a big stroke on France, which considers itself the craddle of democracy," Abdullayev said. Abdullayev said historians should investigate the incidents of 1915, and noted that this was just a campaign of the Armenian lobby to serve their own interests ahead of presidential elections in France. "However, this move of the Armenian community living in France has failed," Abdullayev also said. France's top constitutional authority on Tuesday ruled to cancel a law that makes it a crime to deny Armenian allegations on the incidents of 1915 in the Ottoman Empire. The French Constitutional Council ruled in favor of an appeal by a number of French senators and MPs who said the law was a violation of the constitution and the freedom of thought and expression. Approval of the law by the French parliament had almost brought relations between Turkey and France to a standstill and it had drawn fierce criticisms from French historians and intellectuals as well. The law penalizes denial of the Armenian allegations with one-year prison term and fine of 45 thousand euros.