BRUSSELS - Joost Lagendijk, co-president of the Joint Parliamentary Commission between the Turkish parliament and the European Parliament, on Thursday asked the draft law (criminalizing denial of so-called Armenian genocide), to be revoked.
Lagendijk sent a letter, jointly signed by Dutch-Turkish Workers' Union Chairman Mustafa Ayranci and Zeki Arslan, the representative of Turkish associations in the Netherlands, to French Parliament.
Lagendijk said that, "those in Turkey who discuss the Armenia issue apart from the formal views were tried under Article 301 of the Turkish Penal Code", and indicated that, "we can not accept restriction of freedom of speech by France as we are endeavoring for freedom of expression in Turkey for years."
Lagendijk, the Dutch member of the Greens Group, underscored that democratization efforts in Turkey would be hindered in case the draft law in France is adopted.