Jihad Jane was given a deal by Eric Holder to stage a fake terror threat on the internet so Eric Holder and Obama could look like good terrorism fighters and create a diversion from the trillions in wealth being given away free to insiders.

I covered this story well on one of my older suspended accounts. It was an obvious fake FBI job from the start, they admitted she worked for almost a year with them before her “arrest”. They forgot to tell us she was Nada. I have videos of her mental patient FBI patsy fake mom actor. Her fake boyfriend said she just disappeared. It was all an act, fake. Fake with fake media lies on top of it. She was in an FBI office getting va paycheck for months before we heard of it all over CBS and ABC as a real deal. We were conned and the news never said a word. I would not trust this CIA FBI actor trying to sell a book after stabbing her country in the back with a fake false flag terrorism scare that was used to steal real taxdollars. The FBI stages fake terrorism and the fake is used as a real attack for political and financial gain. Its extortion, Eric Holder runs Al-Qaeda in America, planning the next fake FBI attack to scare you into giving up your rights and wealth. Obama ran this whole operation, he is Al-Qaeda, literally. They dont exist without him running fake Mohammed cartoon, underwear, and Portland Christmas tree attacks on you. This was timed with the MUmbai David Headley trial in Chicago, both accused of fake cartoonist scares. They staged a fake Mohammed scare trial to protect Headley from a real trial in India and summary execution for the attacks he planned. Eric and Obama protected the Mumbai mastermind in a fake show trial tied to Jihad Janes fake cartoon internet scare. All timed coinciding with policy or budget needs in DC. Fake terrorism against Americans is planned in the White House. Did I say fake enough times? Obama is staging terror attacks against America, period. He is using the fear from the attacks for political gain, a terrorist by the purest definition of the word.

Uploaded [Youtube] by IranContraScumDid911 on 14 Nov 2011

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Kuwait held snap elections after parliament was dissolved among allegations of corruption in December [Reuters

The snap polls were held after the ruler of the oil-rich Gulf state dissolved parliament following youth-led protests in December over alleged corruption and bitter disputes between opposition MPs and the government.

Sunni Islamists took 23 seats compared with just nine in the dissolved parliament, while liberals were the big losers, winning only two places against five previously.

No women were elected, with the four female MPs of the previous parliament all losing their seats.

Sixty-two percent of Kuwaitis cast their ballots on Thursday, up slightly from 58 per cent in the previous election in 2009.

Voters punished pro-government MPs, reducing them to a small minority, especially 13 former members who were questioned by the public prosecutor over corruption charges.

The opposition scored strongly in the two tribal-dominated constituencies, winning 18 of the 20 available seats.

Kuwait is divided into five electoral districts, with each electing 10 politicians.

Minority Shias, who form about 30 per cent of the native population, saw their representation reduced to seven MPs from nine, with four of them from Islamist groups.

The recent demonstrations against the government led to the resignation of the former prime minister Sheikh Nasser Mohammad al-Ahmad al-Sabah, who was later replaced by another senior member of the ruling family.

OPEC member Kuwait has been rocked by a series of political crises over the past six years, leading to the resignation of seven governments and the dissolution of parliament on four occasions.

www.aljazeera.com, 03 Feb 2012

The headline over her latest article is Israel’s never-ending Holocaust. One of her main points is that Israel has never confronted the trauma of the Nazi holocaust and has “turned it into a placard in the service of the national trauma, to reinforce the constant existential fear and the aggressiveness that comes with it.”

Because what she wrote is so important, and in my view ought to be read by all peoples of all faiths everywhere who want to understand why the Zionist state is what it is, I am going to quote her at some length.

She wrote:

The Holocaust is the primary way Israel defines itself. And that definition is narrow and ailing in the extreme, because the Holocaust is remembered only in a very specific way, as are its lessons. It has long been used to justify the existence and the necessity of the state, and has been mentioned in the same breath as proof that the state is under a never-ending existential threat.

The Holocaust is the sole prism through which our leadership, followed by society at large, examines every situation. This prism distorts reality and leads inexorably to a forgone conclusion… that all our lives are simply one long Shoah (experience of persecution and extermination – my amplification not Merav’s).

The ‘Hitlers’ are always there: Just a week ago, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said for the nth time that there is no shortage of those who want to exterminate us completely. In other words, there is no lack of reasons to continue to reinforce the fear of the Holocaust – which, according to his father, historian Benzion Netanyahu, has never ended.

So it is that we don’t have any rivals, adversaries or even enemies. Only Hitlers. This is how the Holocaust is taught in school, this how it is that Israeli students are taken to visit death camps – and how it came to be that, as Ha’aretz reported on Friday, just 2 percent of Israeli youth feel committed to democratic principles after studying the Holocaust… That’s the way it is with traumas. Because of our human limitations, a trauma that is not dealt with makes us constantly see yet another trauma approaching – even when whatever is coming has no connection to the previous trauma and may even be a good thing. Trauma leads to belligerence and a strong tendency to wreak havoc on one’s surroundings, but first and foremost on oneself.

What we consider rational is actually a frightened, defensive, aggressive pattern. Our current leaders have made Israeli Judaism just a post-traumatic syndrome, while they lead us to self-destruction.

I imagine that most if not all Arabs and other Muslims everywhere would welcome the prospect of Israel self-destructing, but in my Gentile view it is not actually a prospect to be welcomed. Why not?

If there comes a time when it seemed to them that the Zionist state’s self-destruction was imminent, Israel’s leaders would respond in the same way as they would if their state was in danger of being defeated on the battlefield. As readers of my book Zionism: The Real Enemy of the Jews know, that response was put into words by Golda Meir in the course of one of my BBC Panorama interviews with her when she was prime minister. In a doomsday situation, she said, Israel “would be prepared to take the region down with it.”

The question arising is something like this. Is there any power on Planet Earth that could assist Israeli Jews to save themselves from themselves – perhaps I should say save themselves from their deluded leaders?

The more I think about this question, the more I am convinced that there is only one power that could do it – the Jews of the world. But that must be the subject of another post and I will welcome thoughts from others before I write it.

www.alanhart.net, January 30, 2012

We wish him Good-luck, and we will support his actions  in the coming years and with all membership and with all available means of Turkish Forum.

We also wish good-luck to ATAA’s sister organization FTAA . FTAA is now led by President Ali Cinar who is supported by wast majority of membership during the last months election. we  recognize the wast amount work with Mr. Ali Cinar has to face. Similarly, Our support will also be with FTAA  if he so desires.

Dr. Kayaalp Buyukataman, President

Turkish Forum -Dunya Turkleri Birligi

==============================================

President Message By Ergün Kırlıkovalı

Dear Members of the Turkish American Community coast-to-coast:

I hope you and your family have adjusted to the hustle and bustle of the New Year after having a wonderful holiday season.

The month of January has passed with fury and left me wondering where the whole month went.  When you take a look at what was achieved, you will see why.

What a start to the New Year!

ATAA component associations were busy arranging local events and our TABAN and Student Outreach programs were on the road, visiting Colorado, Nevada and Canada. Membership drive and fundraising were in full swing.  ATAA Türk Evi hosted the visiting graduate students from Bahcesehir University (İstanbul, Türkiye),  where distinguished lecturers like Mark Meirowitz, David Saltzman, and Gunay Evinch, have addressed the students, explaining to them how the U.S. Government operates and the U.S. legal system works.

ATAA leadership paid an official visit to the brand new headquarters of the Turkish Coalition of America only steps from the White House.  Joint programs were discussed.

ATAA leadership visited the offices of the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus to sign the book of condolences for the legendary Turkish Cypriot leader and the founder of TRNC, Rauf Denktash, who passed away on January 13, 2012.

ATAA leadership also paid a courtesy visit to the Turkish Embassy to show our community’s deep respect and love for our motherland, Türkiye.

ATAA leadership met with Dr. Elizabeth W. Shelton, executive director of American Friends of Turkey, to coordinate the upcoming events.  AFOT will be bringing to the U.S. Dr. Ufuk Kocabas, the Project Director of the Yenikapi, Istanbul Project (the Byzantine Port of Constantinople). As you know, the Istanbul University group undertaking the excavations has unearthed 36 vessels and cargoes, going back to the Fifth Century. It has been an amazing find. As you may well know, his trip will be the first time any information about this project will be presented to American audiences, and by all indications, the audiences will be packed to see his presentation and hear him lecture.

Congratulations FTAA President Ali Çınar!

On behalf of the Assembly of Turkish American Associations (ATAA), I congratulate Mr. Ali Çınar for his election to the presidency of the Federation of Turkish American Associations (FTAA). Established in 1956, FTAA is one of America’s leading national Turkish American organizations in a critical part of the country, New York and New Jersey. Ali Çınar comes to the FTAA Presidency with vast knowledge and experience in public advocacy and community empowerment. A former Vice President of ATAA (2009-11) and as Chief Advisor to the ATAA President since June 2011, Mr. Çınar a much loved, hard-working, creative, and energetic community leader. Mr. Cinar was also the founder of the Istanbul University Mezunlari US (IUMEZUS) and its first president.

ATAA looks forward to continued excellence in solidarity and cooperation with FTAA. I wish President Ali Çınar and the FTAA Team all the success.

Elections at ATAA

The ATAA Board of Directors resolved on January 18, 2012 to start a Nominating Committee to oversee the upcoming elections where one third of the Board will be up for election.

I am grateful to Lale Iskarpatyoti for accepting to chair the Nominating Committee and members Gunay Evinch (Past President, ATAA), Tunca Iskir (Past President, ATAA), Nurten Ural (Past President, ATAA) and Mehmet Celebi (President Elect, ATAA) for accepting to serve on this very important committee.

The positions up for election are the following: Treasurer (Esra Ugurlu), Vice President Midcentral (Feridun Bek), Vice President Southwest (Sibel Pakdemirli), Vice President Northwest (Sevgi Baran), West (Maria Cakiraga). Please note that all incumbents can run again for their seats as this is their first term in office and that the race is wide open to all other qualified candidates. I would be delighted, therefore, if you kindly participate in this democratic process by nominating candidates and/or voting.

We will issue a CIS on this immediately with more election information and specifics. Due to time limitations and in the interest saving paper and labor, a separate paper mass-mailing via USPS will not be done. We will try to reach every member via this monthly e-Newsletter and a separate CIS, as well as press releases, media coverage, and www.ataa.org site. We hope, with your support, to complete the nominating process by February 15, 2012, so that the elections may be completed by March 15, and the approved by the AOD on April 15, 2012. Your cooperation and participation is, again, greatly appreciated.

Damnation Without Representation:  French Memory Law

We all know what “taxation without representation” led to in 1776: Expulsion of the British from colonial America.

And now we will see what “damnation without representation” will lead to in 2012: expulsion of the French culture from the Turkish/Turkic world.

I am, of course, referring to the draconian French memory law that cleared the French Senate on January 23, 2012, which criminalizes the denial of the so-called “Armenian genocide”, allegedly carried out in Ottoman Empire during World War I.  The passage of the measure, adopted a month earlier by a mere 50 out 577 deputies in the lower chamber of the French Parliament, makes a mockery of the notion of “participatory democracy”, not to mention the freedom of speech.

The WW I era atrocities in Eastern Anatolia were never tried by a “competent tribunal” as the 1948 United Nations Convention on Prevention and Punishment of genocide stipulates. “Intent” to exterminate was never proven, leaving the discredited political claim as just that.  “No court verdict” was issued characterizing these events a genocide. This historical controversy has become fodder to election year politics in France, destroying the freedom of expression along with it.  No law can be used retroactively, 1948 UN convention on genocide included. And yet, these rock solid facts, values, and concepts,  which are foundations of modern life cherished by humanity were respected by only 86 courageous French Senators who tried to stop that shameful memory law with their “No” votes.  The law passed by the “Yes” votes of 127 Senators, despite the rejection of the same law by the Constitution Sub-Committee a few days earlier.  Now it looks like it is heading for the Constitution Committee for a final verdict on whether it is constitutional to criminalize thought.

Some French parliamentarians, it seems, felt compelled by ethnocentric political agenda in an election year, to play the judge, the jury, the executioner, and while at it, the expert historian. We all know they are none of these.  The harsh memory law, reminiscent of those in the defunct Soviet Empire, places a severe limitation on the French democracy, curbs free speech, undermines dialogue, destroys scholarly research, and discourages scholarly dissent.

France currently serves as a co-chair country of the OSCE Minsk Group on the resolution of Armenian-Azerbaijani Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. Adoption of a law upholding the victims of one ethnicity over another on a historically controversial issue would question the practicality of French role as a mediator on an issue, which both Azerbaijan and Turkey view as directly linked to Turkish-Armenian reconciliation.

This law might also be considered the epitaph of the Nabucco pipeline and the European energy security, if not also anything French in the culture of the people of the vast geography that stretches from the Balkans to the Caucasus, from the Middle East to North Africa, and from Anatolia to Central Asia.

Armenians have a cause, not a case

Armenians took up arms against their own government. They joined the invading enemy armies. They wreaked havoc among the unprotected Muslim villages of Anatolia with their Huncak, Dashnak, Ramgavar, and other bands and thugs. They demanded territory for what can only be described as the first apartheid  of the 20th Century (i.e. the Greater Armenia.)  These and other such aspects are grouped under the “NINE T’s OF THE TURKISH ARMENIAN CONFLICT”.   If one ignores these, one ignores half the story gets no closure.

The assertion of Armenian genocide is based on a racist and dishonest version of history. Racist because Turkish suffering is deliberately ignored; and dishonest because the 9 T’s are ignored.

Just look at this 1906 photo of Cadets at an Armenian Military Academy, established in Bulgaria, with all in uniforms and their Russian “Mosin” weapons brandished. This single frame of an old photo destroys the entire Armenian narrative: that Armenians were peaceful; that they were poor, starving, and helpless; that all happened one day in 1915 without provocation; and that Armenians never killed any Turks.  How much evidence does one need to wake up and smell the Armenian deception? Didn’t Armenians die?  Didn’t they suffer?  Yes, of course, but along with many more Muslims, mostly Turks.  Wartime suffering? Yes.  Genocide? No, not by even a long shot.

Social construction of Memory

This is a term used by sociologists to describe the process of rebuilding a group memory by social acts, not history’s facts. In order to make the long discredited political claims of Armenian genocide stick, Armenian propaganda, agitation, terror, raids, revolts, treason, territorial conflicts and the Turkish victims resulting from them, are all swept under the rug. Novels, letters, exhibits, parliamentary resolutions, films, rallies, political pressure, in short, anything but facts are employed in “social reconstruction” process. Such dramaturgical approaches and ethno-methodology, unfortunately shape most perceptions, feelings and behaviors. People soon start thinking “All this hype cannot be without justification.” French politicians or American columnists or others are not immune to such symbolic and seemingly humane interactions. Before long, one is consumed by “social construction of reality”, i.e. defining reality through social interactions, not objective realities, just like in the case of the alleged Armenian genocide today. Consider this: until 1990s, most media reports used the qualifier “alleged” before genocide, but now they dropped it. Why? Did new research unearth heretofore unknown information? Did a “competent court” determine Ottoman “intent” to exterminate? No and no. What happend is, the Armenians have since increased the dose of pressure to intimidation and harassment levels. That’s social construction at its worst !

May love and peace win over hate, bigotry and discrimination one day . . .

Ergün Kırlıkovalı
President
Assembly of Turkish American Associations

William Odom, former director of the National Security Agency, was known as an outspoken advocate for intelligence reform

The CIA is “out of control” and often refuses to cooperate with other parts of the national security community, even undermining their efforts, said former National Security Agency head William Odom, according to a recently released record of a 9/11 Commission interview.

By Sharon Weinberger

“The CIA currently doesn’t work for anyone. It thinks it works for the president, but it doesn’t and it’s out of control,” says a report summarizing remarks made by Odom, a retired three-star general who served as director of the NSA from 1985 to 1988.

Odom, who also served on the National Security Council staff during the Carter administration, was known as an outspoken advocate for intelligence reform. He died in 2008.

The 2003 interview, among others conducted by the 9/11 Commission, was posted on the website Cryptome, which is often compared to the secret-spilling WikiLeaks website. The report was not a leak, however, but one of many records relating to the 9/11 Commission that have been released and made available on the National Archives website.

“Quite a few remain ‘access restricted’ for classification review,” John Young, who runs Cryptome, told AOL News in an e-mail about the records, some of which he has reposted. “We expect to make an FOIA [Freedom of information Act] request for their release once we have a full listing of those restricted.”

In the commission interview, Odom portrayed CIA officers as individualistic, saying they were interested in writing “exposes.” He also accused the CIA of not sharing “humint,” meaning intelligence collected through contact with people, and of trying to sabotage the Pentagon’s own work in this area.

“The director of the CIA has as much reason to brief the president as the man on the moon,” Odom told the staff of the commission investigating the failure to prevent the terror attacks.

Odom also believed that intelligence officials weren’t held sufficiently accountable for the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. He said he believed that the heads of the NSA and the CIA should both have been fired by the president after 9/11 for “symbolic purposes.”

Many of Odom’s views had already been laid out in his book, “Fixing Intelligence,” which presented his ideas for overhauling the U.S. intelligence process. Some of the reforms Odom advocated to the commission, such as separation of the director of national intelligence from the head of the CIA, were eventually implemented.

While deeply critical of the CIA, Odom also had harsh words for other NSA directors, including Adm. Bobby Inman, whom he accused of “playing games” in Washington. He also said that Gen. Michael Hayden, then the director of the NSA, was “destroying” the agency and didn’t know his “intellectual limits.”

Hayden went on to become head of the CIA in 2006.

www.veteranstoday.com, 15 January 2012

Bernie Sanders

David Koch and Charles G Koch: the US supreme court's Citizens United decision has enabled the industrialists to fund conservative groups to the tune of $200m already in this electoral cycle. Photograph: Getty

The corporate barbarians are through the gate of American democracy. Not satisfied with their all-pervasive influence on our culture, economy and legislative processes, they want more. They want it all.

Two years ago, the United States supreme court betrayed our Constitution and those who fought to ensure that its protections are enjoyed equally by all persons regardless of religion, race or gender by engaging in an unabashed power-grab on behalf of corporate America. In its now infamous decision in the Citizens United case, five justices declared that corporations must be treated as if they are actual people under the Constitution when it comes to spending money to influence our elections, allowing them for the first time to draw on the corporate checkbook – in any amount and at any time – to run ads explicitly for or against specific candidates.

What’s next … a corporate right to vote?

Don’t laugh. Just this month, the Republican National Committee filed an amicus brief in a US appeals court contending that the natural extension of the Citizens United rationale is that the century-old ban on corporate contributions directly to candidates and political parties is similarly unconstitutional. They want corporations to be able to sponsor candidates and parties directly while claiming with a straight face this would not result in any sort of corruption. And while, this month, they take no issue with corporations being subject to the existing contribution limits, anyone paying attention knows that eliminating such caps will be corporate America’s next prize in its brazen ambition for absolute control over our elections.

The US Constitution has served us very well, but when the supreme court says, for purposes of the first amendment, that corporations are people, that writing checks from the company’s bank account is constitutionally-protected speech and that attempts by the federal government and states to impose reasonable restrictions on campaign ads are unconstitutional, our democracy is in grave danger.

I am a proud sponsor of a number of bills that would respond to Citizens United and begin to get a handle on the problem. But something more needs to be done – something more fundamental and indisputable, something that cannot be turned on its head by a rightwing supreme court.

That is why I have introduced a resolution in the Senate (introduced by Representative Ted Deutch in the House) calling for an amendment to the US Constitution that says simply and straightforwardly what everyone – except five members of the United States supreme court – understands: corporations are not people with constitutional rights equal to flesh-and-blood human beings. Corporations are subject to regulation by the people. Corporations may not make campaign contributions – the law of the land for the last century – or dump unlimited sums of money into our elections. And Congress and states have broad power to regulate all election spending.

I did not introduce this lightly. In fact, I have never sought to amend the Constitution before. The US Constitution is an extraordinary document that, in my view, should not be amended often. In light of the supreme court’s Citizens United decision, however, I see no alternative. The ruling has radically changed the nature of our democracy. It has further tilted the balance of power toward the rich and the powerful at a time when the wealthiest people in this country have never had it so good.

At a time when corporations have more than $2tn in cash in their bank accounts, make record-breaking profits and swarm Washington with their lobbyists 24 hours a day, seven days a week, for the highest court in the land to suggest that there is just not enough corporate “speech” in our system defies the bounds of reason and sanity. The ruling already has led to plans, for example, by industrialist brothers David and Charles Koch to steer more than $200m – potentially much more – to conservative groups ahead of election day 2012. Karl Rove has similar designs.

Does anybody really believe that that is what American democracy is supposed to be about?

I believe that the Citizens United decision will go down as one of the worst in our country’s history – and one that demands an amendment to our Constitution in order to restore sovereign power to the people, as our nation’s founders intended.

If we do not reverse it and the culture of corporate dominance over our elections that it has exacerbated, there will be no end to the impact that corporate interests have on our campaigns and our democracy.

Bernie Sanders is a US Senator, and a member of the Senate budget committee. He represents the state of Vermont, and is the longest-serving independent in the history of Congress.

www.guardian.co.uk, 20 January 2012

Turks young and old, waving their country’s red flag, or wrapped in it, marched to the Senate, where the bill will be debated Monday after passage in December in the lower house.

They carried banners reading “No to Sarkozy Shame Law,” ”History for Historians, Politics for Politicians” or other slogans denouncing an alleged bid by President Nicolas Sarkozy to “fish for votes” among French Armenians before the two-round presidential elections in April and May.

Critics claim the real aim of the bill is to ensure votes for PresidentNicolas Sarkozy from French Armenians in the two-round presidential elections in April and May. An estimated 500,000 Armenians live in France.

The measure would make it a crime to deny that mass killings of Armenians in 1915 by Ottoman Turks constitute genocide. It sets a punishment of up to one year in prison and a fine of €45,000 ($59,000) for those who deny or “outrageously minimize” the killings — putting such action on par with denial of the Holocaust.

France formally recognized the 1915 killings as genocide in 2001, but provided no penalty for anyone refuting that.

Despite the passing of nearly 100 years since the killings, the issue remains a deeply emotional one for Armenians who lost loved ones and for Turks who see a challenge to their national honor.

An irate Turkey briefly recalled its ambassador to France and suspended military, economic and political ties.

“Politicians who haven’t read an article on this say there was a genocide,” said Beyhan Yildirim, 35, a demonstrator from Berlin. He was among those bused into Paris from Germany and elsewhere for Saturday’s march.

Scores of buses from France, Germany and elsewhere lined the streets of southern Paris where the march began.

Armenians plan a demonstration near the Senate on Monday before the debate and vote.

It was unclear whether the measure would get the easy ride it did in the National Assembly, the lower but more powerful house.

The Senate is controlled by the rival Socialists who had earlier backed the bill. However, the Senate Commission on Laws voted against its passage last week, saying the measure risks violating constitutional protections including freedom of speech. The question is whether the Socialists will heed the recommendations if only because the issue is becoming an electoral hot potato.

Compromising freedom of expression in France, considered the cradle of human rights, has been a key argument of the Turkish government against the measure.

It is unclear whether lawmakers in the National Assembly had an inkling in advance that their vote giving the green light to the bill would trigger a diplomatic dispute. There appeared to be less than 100 lawmakers present for the Dec. 22 vote — out of 577.

Fadime Ertugrul-Tastan, deputy mayor of small Normandy town of Herouville, was among those demonstrating against the bill on Saturday, wearing the blue, white and red sash of French officials.

She said her family hailed from Kars, near the Armenian border, and her grandparents were killed by Armenians.

“I am here to honor their memory,” she said, adding, “There was no genocide because we were in a period of war.”

Thousands of people gathered in the French capital to protest a bill that penalizes rejection of Armenian genocide claims today.

Nearly 35,000 Turks living in France and other European countries gathered despite rain and cold weather to shun the bill .

The bill is seto to come to the French Senate floor Monday Jan. 23 when members of the Senate could vote to uphold a parliamentary committee decision against the proposed law and drop the bill without debate.

Protesters carried French, Turkish, Algerian and Azerbaijani flags and chanted slogans urging senator to act against the legislation.

“I have been living in France for fifty years and I haven’t seen so many Turks got together. Turks in Europe for the first time had the chance to raise a strong voice against an injustice done to them,” Demir Önger, head of a Paris-based Turkish culture association said.

A bill proposed by the ruling party penalizes the rejection of Armenian genocide claims in France with a 45,000 euro fine a and one year in jail.

A similar bill — proposed by the Socialist Party — was approved in 2006 by the lower house but the Senate rejected to debate the bill in May 2011.

The Associated Press

PARIS — A Senate panel says it would be unconstitutional for France to make it illegal to deny that the mass killings of Armenians by Ottoman Turks nearly a century ago constituted genocide.

Relations between France and Turkey have soured since the National Assembly, France’s lower house of parliament, passed such a bill last month and sent it to the Senate.

The Senate’s Commission of Laws voted Wednesday that such a law, if passed, would violate constitutional protections, notably freedom of speech. The vote was 23 Senators for and 9 against, with 8 abstentions.

The panel vote — a nonbinding recommendation — was the first legislative setback for the controversial bill. The measure goes to the full Senate for debate on Monday.