Islam Times - French law criminalizes Armenian genocide denial

Islam Times - A final signature from President Nicolas Sarkozy and it will be a crime to deny officially-recognized genocides, such as Turkey's genocide against Armenians during World War I. The bill does not mention specific genocides, but after the bill was introduced last month Turkey suspended all military, economic and political agreements with France. Following the law's passage through parliament, Turkey's ambassador has declared he will leave France.

France is one of 19 countries which acknowledge the murdering of nearly 1 million Armenians during the final days of the Ottoman Empire.

Turkey finds the term genocide inaccurate, claiming the killings weren't systematic, and resents that others are attempting to describe their national history.

France has more than 500,000 Armenians, and many believe Sarkozy pushed through the legislation to win their vote in the upcoming presidential election. The 400,000-strong Turkish community has almost as many votes, but most have already turned against Sarkozy for his consistently antagonistic policies towards Muslims.

In just the last week Sarkozy's mad scramble for votes has led him to alienate Iran as well as NATO allies Turkey and the United States. It seems that whoever wins the upcoming election will have a lot of fences to mend.