YEREVAN, JANUARY 24, ARMENPRESS: There is nothing unexpected in the adoption of the bill criminalizing the denial of the Armenian Genocide by France's Senate, it was an expected event, Alexander Tsinker, director of East European States & CIS Institute in Tel Aviv, told Armenpress. He said Turkey's threats worth nothing.

"These threats are of no danger for France. The same happened in 2001 when France officially recognized the Armenian Genocide. All these threats lasted for one or two months. As to the opinion that the adoption of the bill is a pre-electoral step, it is not serious either. The number of Armenian and Turkish voters in France is almost the same. You win half a million, you lose half a million. So, it is not an explanation. It is another step toward the international recognition of the Armenian Genocide. The recognition process, though, moves forward slowly," Tsinker said.

He also noted that in Israel the process of recognition of genocide moves slower. "We should have been among the first to recognize this crime committed in the Ottoman Empire. But we are going to it very slowly. But I am an optimist, and I think that this year certain changes will be registered in the process of recognition of the Armenian Genocide by the Jewish state," Alexander Tsinker said.