Turkey's Contemporary Journalists Association (CDG) chairman Ahmet Abakay has appealed for the International Federation of Journalists (FIJ) to act against a draft law criminalizing the denial of the "Armenian Genocide" which will be debated in the French Parliament on October 12.

If the law is passed, persons who deny the "Armenian Genocide" proposed to be taken place between 1915 and 1918 in Anatolia marking the end of the Ottomon Empire are to be sentenced to a year in prison and fined 45,000 Euro in France.

Addressing a letter to IFJ Secretary General Aidan White, CGD chairman Abakay called on the international organization which has about 500.000 members in 100 countries to "raise voice against the draft bill that places the freedom of expression in a bottleneck. As our framework organization, do not extent your hands to this shackle".

Recalling that since it was established the CDG has without concessions defended democracy, human rights, the freedom of press and expression, Abakay asked the Brussels-based IFJ to "display a clear and open attitude" against the initiative in France.

"This development is a bad example and double standards which cannot be defended either for France, which is accepted as a symbol of freedoms, or Europe" the letter said. "Both France and Europe as well as the contemporary world should be rid of this shame. Even worse is that the freedom and right of expression is being made an appetizer for internal politics, for the French elections".

301 victims against the draft

A number of Turkish journalists and writers who were prosecuted in Turkey for "denigrating Turkishness" under the controversial Penal Code article 301 due to their direct or indirect references to an "Armenian Genocide" have also reacted to the French draft charging that it violated the freedom of expression.

In an exclusive report in the Turkish Radikal newspaper, Elif Safak, Baskin Oran, Murat Belge, Ibrahim Kaboglu and Fatih Tas as well as Armenian-Turkish journalist Hrant Dink, all prosecuted under 301, united against the French "Armenian Genocide" draft and agreed that France was "delivering a blow to the freedom of expression with this law". (EO/II/YE)