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France has made it a crime, punishable by up to 1 year in prison, to deny the Armenian genocide. I am the grandson of a genocide survivor who escaped from Van in 1915, but I think this new law in France is stupid and shortsighted and I don't agree with it at all. For a start, it is dangerous when governments start telling people what to think. It might be okay when they get it right, but what happens when the government takes a view that we don't agree with and we do not have the freedom to disagree?
Secondly, how can France ever complain now about the outrageous human-rights violations in Turkey - when writers and academics get prosecuted for "insulting Turkishness" because they dare to admit to what happened in 1915 and afterwards - when they themselves are now planning to lock people up for their opinions about history.
I might get slated for this, but I believe that this new law in France is illiberal, stupid and dangerous.
Secondly, how can France ever complain now about the outrageous human-rights violations in Turkey - when writers and academics get prosecuted for "insulting Turkishness" because they dare to admit to what happened in 1915 and afterwards - when they themselves are now planning to lock people up for their opinions about history.
I might get slated for this, but I believe that this new law in France is illiberal, stupid and dangerous.