Πηγή: Todays Zaman
Jan 2 2012
Dozens of people from Turkey and the Azerbaijani diaspora living in the Russian city of St. Petersburg staged a protest outside the city’s French Consulate-General on Saturday to protest the French parliament’s vote on a bill criminalizing denial of the alleged Armenian genocide, the Cihan news agency reported Monday.
Close to 100 protestors waved placards and banners with messages condemning France’s decision to pass the bill and chanted slogans condemning French President Nicolas Sarkozy and Armenian President Serzh Azati Sargsyan.
The protest, which was organized by the International Diaspora Center (IDC), was supported by minorities in St. Petersburg from a number of Turkic-speaking nations, including Turkey, Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan.
Speaking at the protest, the group’s chairman, İsmail Ağayev, said the group had gathered to defend their freedom and condemn France’s decision to pass such a bill. “We want to make a show of solidarity and friendship with our Turkish brothers,” he said.
Protestors also demanded that France be removed as one of the co-chairmen of the OSCE Minsk Group. The OSCE Minsk Group, which was created in 1992 by the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) to encourage a peaceful, negotiated resolution to the conflict between Azerbaijan and Armenia over the landlocked region Nagorno-Karabakh, is currently co-chaired by representatives from France, the US and Russia.
At the end of the protest, which passed uneventfully, protestors issued a letter of complaint and condemnation to a representative of the consulate.
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