French law on Armenian killings struck down

France's Constitutional Council has ruled that a law to punish denial of the mass killings of Armenians was unconstitutional as it infringed on freedom of expression. Tuesday's ruling by the country's highest constitutional authority was welcomed by Turkey, but President Nicolas Sarkozy, whose party had put forward the bill, quickly pledged to draft a new version of the law. France formally recognised the 1915-16 killings as genocide in 2001, but provided no penalty for anyone refuting that. The country's lower house approval of the measure in December and the senate followed giving the law the green light in January. The law struck down on Tuesday had set a punishment of up to one year in prison and a fine of 45,000 euros ($59,000) for those who deny or "outrageously minimise" the killings, putting such action on par with denial of the Holocaust. However, the Constitutional Council labelled the law an "unconstitutional attack on freedom of expression" and it said it wished "not to enter into the realm of responsibility that belongs to historians". Ruling welcomed Turkey quickly welcomed the ruling on the law which Recep Tayyip Erdogan, prime minister, has denounced as "tantamount to discrimination and racism". Turkey's foreign minister welcomed the decision, saying it was “pleasing that a grave mistake has been corrected by France's highest legal body". In a written statement, Ahmet Davutoglu said he hopes France adopts "a constructive approach in regard to the handling of the conflict between Turkey and Armenia in a just and scientific manner and contributes to its solution rather than deepening it". "Such an approach would contribute to improvement of Turkish-French relations in every field," he said. However, Sarkozy's office quickly put out a statement saying he "has ordered the government to prepare a new draft, taking into account the Constitutional Council's decision". Sarkozy noted "the great disappointment and profound sadness of all those who welcomed with hope and gratitude the adoption of this law aimed at providing protection against revisionism". 'Totally outraged' The head of a French Armenian organisation sharply criticised the ruling, saying it was the result of Turkish lobbying. "We have been totally outraged by the Constitutional Council's decision at its very core, which is based on politics rather than on legal grounds," said Franck Mourad Papazian, president of the Council of Co-ordination of Armenian Organisations in France. An estimated 500,000 Armenians live in France, and many have pressed to raise the legal statute regarding the massacres to the same level as the Holocaust by punishing the denial of genocide. Armenians say up to 1.5 million of their ancestors were killed by Turkey's former Ottoman Empire. Turkey says 500,000 died and ascribes the toll to fighting and starvation during World War I.