Patrick Devedjian

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Patrick Devedjian (born on 26 August, 1944 in Fontainebleau) is an Armenian French politician.^[1]

As a student at the University of Paris II, he was a member of the far-right (some would say fascist-leaning) group Occident. He was admitted to the Paris bar in 1970. He became a militant in the Gaullist movement as early as 1971 and participated in the foundation of the RPR party in 1976. In 1983, he was elected mayor of Antony (Hauts-de-Seine) for the first time, and was reelected in 1989, 1995 and 2001. In 1986, he was elected Member of Parliament from the Hauts-de-Seine department and was reelected four times in 1988, 1993, 1997 and 2002. He was appointed Minister for Local Liberties in 2002, serving until 2004. He was the Minister of the Industry in 2004, serving until 2005. He is a close adviser to Nicolas Sarkozy and supports his candidacy for the Presidency of the French Republic.^[2]

[edit] Proposed Armenian genocide denial bill

Devedjian proposed an amendment to a proposed bill criminalizing denial of the Armenian Genocide on 9 October, 2006 that read, "These regulations do not apply to academic and scientific researches and studies." Devedjian added a statement to the amendment that according to panarmenian.com would "prevent any provocations and political demonstrations organized by a foreign country."^[1]