Gul: "French council saved the country's prestige"

After France's Constitutional Council overturned a law criminalizing denials of the 1915 events as genocide on the grounds that it contradicts the French constitution and violated freedom of expression, President Abdullah Gul welcomed the council's rejection yesterday. "The decision of the Council showed how sound the institutions were in France. The French Constitutional Council saved the prestige of the country with its decision. It showed that views, other than official state opinions, could be defended and expressed in France," Gul said.