Turkish lawmakers debate retaliatory French Algerian genocide bill News
Turkish lawmakers debate retaliatory French Algerian genocide bill

[JURIST] Lawmakers in the Turkish parliament [official website] Wednesday discussed a bill that would label the killings of Algerians by France during the colonial period as genocide [JURIST report] and make it illegal to deny that the French were responsible for the killings. The parliament's Justice Committee nonetheless concluded that there was little support for the bill and deferred it to a subcommittee for further review.

The Turkish bill was offered as retaliation against a controversial French parliamentary proposal, scheduled for a vote in Paris on Thursday, that would make it illegal to deny that Turkey is responsible for committing genocide against Armenians [ANI backgrounder] during World War I. French legislators postponed a debate on that measure in May when Turkey threatened trade sanctions [JURIST report] against France. On Monday, Turkey urged [JURIST report] the European Union [official website] to oppose the French law. The Daily Star has more.

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