The Last Ditch by Tom Paine

Link: BBC NEWS | World | Europe | French in Armenia ‘genocide’ row.

This is where the logic of outlawing “Holocaust denial” takes us. If it’s illegal to deny one atrocity, why not another? While I despise the current fashion for apologising for history, I have some sympathy with the Armenians. They are understandably infuriated by modern Turkey’s refusal to acknowledge its past.

However, passing such laws is a mistake. Everyone should be entitled to state their point of view, however vile – whether it be the Islamic world’s routine Holocaust denial or Turkey’s denial of this massacre.

Am I too cynical to suspect that the real reason French deputies voted for this was to scupper Turkey’s entry to the EU without actually having to state their politically-incorrect reasons for objecting to it?