French leader Jacques Chirac has told Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan he is sorry French lawmakers approved a bill making it a crime to deny Armenians were victims of genocide at the hands of Ottoman Turks.

Last week I highlighted the absurd nature of trying to legislate history and its various interpretations, however faulty they may be. So this bill gets a thumbs down here, but for Chirac to apologize for it is possibly even worse. Apart from the usual appeasement argument he is arguably helping the law achieve the exact opposite of what it intended: renew a debate in which Turkey gets a prominent place at the table. It would have been better if Chirac had stayed quiet about it altogether.