(AP) - A Paris court on Wednesday ordered the editors of a French reference book to pay a small fine for an unbalanced portrayal of the killings of hundreds of thousands of Armenians during World War I, which Armenians say was genocide.
The court said the Quid reference book favored Turkey's position and only briefly described the Armenian point of view. The court issued a fine of $1.19 and ordered the
publication of its verdict in three daily newspapers, three weekly newspapers and on the Quid internet site.
The committee for the defense of the Armenian cause filed a complaint against the encyclopedia in 2003.
Defense lawyers for the reference book underlined its editorial freedom and pointed out that the book mentions a 2001 French law that recognizes the killings as genocide.
Armenians say some 1.5 million of their people were killed as the Ottoman Empire forced them from eastern Turkey between 1915 and 1923 in a deliberate campaign of genocide. Turkey says the death count is inflated and insists that Armenians were killed or displaced in the civil unrest during the collapse of the Ottoman Empire.
The court said the Quid reference book favored Turkey's position and only briefly described the Armenian point of view. The court issued a fine of $1.19 and ordered the
publication of its verdict in three daily newspapers, three weekly newspapers and on the Quid internet site.
The committee for the defense of the Armenian cause filed a complaint against the encyclopedia in 2003.
Defense lawyers for the reference book underlined its editorial freedom and pointed out that the book mentions a 2001 French law that recognizes the killings as genocide.
Armenians say some 1.5 million of their people were killed as the Ottoman Empire forced them from eastern Turkey between 1915 and 1923 in a deliberate campaign of genocide. Turkey says the death count is inflated and insists that Armenians were killed or displaced in the civil unrest during the collapse of the Ottoman Empire.