A senior representative of the Armenian Revolutionary Federation (AFR, Dashnaktsutyun) believes that the adoption of the law criminalizing the public denial of the Armenian Genocide by the Senate of France is a great political achievement for all Armenians of the world and a victory of justice for France.

“The adoption of the law is the victory of sober Turks in Turkey. They have already started saying that such laws and resolutions must be adopted abroad, because this way it would be possible to help Turks inside Turkey get acquainted with their history,” says Giro Manoyan, Director of the International Secretariat of the AFR Bureau in Yerevan.

Manoyan believes that the Monday vote at the upper house of the French parliament that went 127-86 in favor of the bill proves that France is not afraid of the threats voiced by Turkey.

“Of course, it was the defeat of Turkey’s policy. Turkey tried to do everything; it raised the bar so high that in the end Turkey was the one which fell down from that bar. Once again it was proved that Turkey is not ready to face its history,” Manoyan says.

The ARF representative is sure that other European Union member countries will follow the example of France.
According to Manoyan, the adoption of the bill will only have a temporary impact on French-Turkish relations.

“During the upcoming days, even for some weeks the [French-Turkish] relations will be frozen, there will be a fall in the level of diplomatic relations [between France and Turkey], as in terms of economy, I believe that Turkey cannot do many things. By now concerns have been voiced in Turkey that they do not want to talk about boycotting products of French make, because they have their own interests in them. The Turkish-French trade interests cannot be easily replaced,” says Manoyan.