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ANKARA: Letter To French M.Ps

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  • ANKARA: Letter To French M.Ps

    Anatolian Times, Turkey
    May 14 2006

    Letter To French M.Ps


    ANKARA - ''Members of the Turkish-French Parliamentary Friendship
    Group have sent a letter to French parliamentarians in which they
    express their objection to the resolution that considers denial of
    Armenian genocide a crime'', said Omer Ozyilmaz, the deputy chairman
    of the group.

    Ozyilmaz told a press conference at the parliament that the mentioned
    resolution will be debated at the French parliament in coming days,
    and their letter has been sent to French parliament speaker, chairmen
    of political groups at the parliament, chairmen of parliamentary
    commissions and delegations, dignitaries of the Socialist Party, and
    the members of the French-Turkish Friendship Group.

    In the letter, Turkish MPs have stressed that it is an unjust move to
    define the incidents which occurred during the World War I and which
    have not been clarified yet, as ''genocide'', Ozyilmaz noted.

    Ozyilmaz said that the letter refers to the joint press conference
    that Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and CHP (main opposition
    Republican People's Party) leader Deniz Baykal held last year in
    which they announced that Turkish archives will always be open to
    historians.

    However, Armenia has not responded to Erdogan's and Baykal's call
    yet, he stated.

    Expressing belief that bilateral relations get harmed if this
    resolution is adopted at the French parliament, Ozyilmaz said that
    historians and researchers are the ones who should actually deal with
    this matter.

    On the other hand, Ankara Chamber of Commerce (ATO) Chairman Sinan
    Aygun sent letters to Jean-Francois Bernardin, president of the
    Association of French Chambers of Commerce and Industry (ACFCI), and
    Pierre Simon, chairman of the Paris Chamber of Commerce, expressing
    his reaction to French draft law which aims to criminalize denial of
    so-called Armenian genocide.

    In his letters, Aygun stresses that Turkish-French relations should
    not be harmed due to populist initiatives of a few irresponsible
    politicians.

    Aygun notes that an EU member France, which is one of defenders of
    freedom of expression, wants to restrict freedom of speech through
    this bill, which is a contradiction.
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