The days before Christmas, the French parliament approved a bill that makes it an offense to deny the Armenian genocide. The law must also be approved by the House of Lords, if it is done it will be punishable up to one year in prison and SEK 300,000 in fines [DN]. Previously, there are laws in Australia, Switzerland and Uruguay against denial of the 1915 genocide. These laws are similar to those found in a number of countries against the denial of the Holocaust.
To protest against this decision, President of the Azerbaijani National Association, Settar Sevigin together with Mustafa Chair of Ataturk Dushunja association met with France's deputy ambassador at the French Embassy in Stockholm. This meeting took place in January 3rd 2012 and the meeting lasted about thirty minutes . In this meeting, Setter Sevgin critized France's decision and stressed that in a free society you can have douts about historical and scientific facts. Ignorance and propaganda should not be countered with legislation, but with good arguments and public education. France is on a dangerous road when they limit free speech. and he reminded that France is chairman of the Minsk Group on Nagorno-Karabakh between Azerbaijan and Armenia in spite of this, France has played a passive role and has not been as active as on the so-called genocide of Armenians. He recalled that 20% of Azerbaijani territory occupied by Armenian military, because of this there is more than 1 million war refugees. At last they gave a protest letter that was signed by the Azerbaijani National Association and other Turkish associations in Sweden.
