Cypriot lawmakers on Monday, March 30, agreed to amend current legislation, criminalizing the denial of a genocide if the given crime against humanity has been recognized by the House, Cyprus Mail reports.
The matter is fundamentally about the Armenian Genocide, and resurfaced last week due to the upcoming visit of Armenian National Assembly speaker Galust Sahakyan to Cyprus to mark the 100th anniversary of the first genocide of the 20th century.
As it stands, the law states that denial of crimes against humanity and genocide is a criminal offence only where the crime in question has been recognized by irrevocable decision of an international court. Cyprus is among 22 countries that have recognized the Armenian Genocide. However, because the International Criminal Court has not recognized it, thus far denial of the genocide was not a criminal offence here.
House Speaker Yiannakis Omirou was keen to add a clause to the legislation, making genocide denial a criminal offence whether it has been recognized by an international court or by a resolution of the Cyprus parliament, the report says.
Following debate at the House legal affairs committee on Monday, the parties took on board Omirou’s legislative proposal, but with a modification – denial of genocide will constitute a criminal offence only where the House resolution recognizing that genocide was unanimous.
Sources from the ruling DISY party told the Mail that the House may hold an extraordinary session of the plenum on Thursday morning, before the scheduled plenary, to pass the legal amendment.
Sahakyan, due on the island on Wednesday, is on Thursday afternoon scheduled to address the House of Representatives.
While on an official trip to Armenia last November, Omirou appears to have promised his Armenian counterpart that Cyprus would criminalize the denial of the Armenian Genocide, as other countries – Switzerland, Slovakia, Greece – have done.
The same DISY sources, according to Cyprus Mail, dismissed the notion, as reported by daily Simerini, that Omirou and the presidency were at odds over amending the law.
The only reservations the president had was that the government was not consulted on the matter, which pertains to foreign policy.
The sources also refuted media reports that DISY MPs had argued in committee against criminalizing denial because it might anger the Turkish Cypriots and Turkey, particularly at this juncture when peace talks may resume.
Cyprus was the first European country (and the second worldwide, after Uruguay) to officially recognize the Armenian Genocide. On April 24, 1975, Resolution 36 was voted unanimously by the House of Representatives.
Given that decision was unanimous, the criminalization amendment now being proposed should automatically apply to the Armenian Genocide.
Under the law, the denial or “flagrant downgrading” of recognized war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide, provided the crime has been recognized by an international court, is punishable by up to five years imprisonment and/or a fine of €10,000.