07/10/2011 11:53
Sarkozy: No reconciliation is possible if the truth is denied
Today during joint press conference of RA President Serzh Sargsyan and French President Nicola Sarkozy the latter announced that France will go further and will criminalize the denial of the Genocide if Turkey does not recognize the Armenian Genocide.
President of France mentioned the time is not unlimited and France will take up that step during his presidency.
French journalist asked Nicola Sarkozy what he meant a day before in Tsitsernakaberd by saying that France will take a greater responsibility if Turkey does not look at its history directly. President answered that his approach is clear, the collective denial is worse than the individual one. However he thinks that the denial of Genocide should not be allowed in an individual level as well.
“If a large country as Turkey recognizes its own history and the genocide realized at the beginning of the century France and Armenia will perceive it as a gesture of peace, gesture of reconciliation with Armenia. It is impossible to get a reconciliation and in the same time to deny the historical truth,” the French President said.
N. Sarcozy also noticed that the time is not unlimited and they had had enough time to think over it since 1915: “If Turkey finds courage and takes that step France will find it satisfactory.”