Number 198 | May 28, 2012
The Senate Foreign Affairs Committee of Spain rejected a draft bill characterizing the Ottoman Armenian tragedy of World War I as genocide. The Senate Committee rejected the bill by 36 to three votes. It was proposed by two deputies from Amaiur, a left-wing Basque nationalist coalition.
José María Beneyto, spokesman for the ruling People’s Party (PP), is reported to have said that the party was opposed to the measure as it was against “a revision of history” by parliament. Beneyto expressed that the party prefers to focus on the normalization of Armenian-Turkish relations. The example of France shows that such decisions have a negative impact on bilateral relations between Armenia and Turkey, Beneyto reportedly said.
Earlier this year, the French Constitutional Court struck down a draft bill that sought to criminalize speech which did not endorse the view that the Ottoman-Armenian tragedy of 1915 constituted genocide. The Council had ruled that “the legislature did unconstitutional harm to the exercise of freedom of expression and communication”.
