NANCE, NOVEMBER 17, NOYAN TAPAN - ARMENIANS TODAY. 13-year-old Mustafa Dogan, a student of the French college in the city of Nance, France, was expelled from school for denying the fact of Armenian Genocide in his composition. The school gave two days to Mustafa to collect information about the Armenian Genocide, to speak with people having experienced the Genocide, to apply to sources being alternative to the Turkish ones in Internet and to correct his views. According to Marmara, the History teacher of the French college had assigned the students to write a composition about the Armenian Genocide and the events of 1915. The Turkish student, who had debated with his teacher before, this time got angry and wrote in his composition: "Even if a genocide was committed, the Armenians deserved it." Zaman newspaper's Paris correspondent wrote that the law envisaging a criminal punishment for denial of the Armenian Genocide has not been yet ratified in France but it is already being used now. This incident is rather typical. The school teacher earlier being concerned with Mustafa's assertions invited his father to school and explained to him that according to the French laws, the boy commits a crime by denying the Armenian Genocide. Boy's father, Mehmed Dogan answered that he is not aware of such a law's existence. The teacher said that it is clear who encourages the boy. Later Mehmed Dogan said that the teacher showed a racial approach and made the 13-year-old boy angry. He added that he does not believe, either that a genocide had been committed but he is sorry that his son wrote that the Armenians deserved the Genocide. A Turkish organization functioning in France is going to send its representative for a meeting with the school's headmaster this Friday. It was mentioned that in his talk to Zaman's correspondent the headmaster supported the History teacher and considered the punishment fair.

---