Belgium sees attempt to pass Armenian genocide bill

The liberal Belgian MR Party has presented a bill to the Brussels Parliament calling for an official recognition of the so-called Armenian genocide. The bill, put forward by MR Senators Alain Destexhe, Francoise Roelants du Vivier, and Christine Defraigne, demands that all archives and research on the issue be opened up for public consumption, and notes that the relations between Turkey and Armenia are completely blocked due to the disagreement over exactly what happened to ethnic Armenians in Turkey during the WWI period. The bill also proposes that periodic activities in Belgium designed to inform and remind Belgian people about the past as it relates to the issue. The MR Party had proposed a similar measure last year in the Belgian Parliament, even demanding a measure to make it a crime to deny the Armenian genocide in public. Actions on the part of Socialist Party MPs in the government resulted in the overturning of the proposed bill. Â