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PACE Chief Criticizes Chirac Genocide Remarks

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  • PACE Chief Criticizes Chirac Genocide Remarks

    PACE CHIEF CRITICIZES CHIRAC GENOCIDE REMARKS

    Radio Liberty, Czech Republic
    Oct 2 2006

    The Council of Europe's parliamentary leader criticized Monday
    suggestions by French President Jacques Chirac that Ankara should
    recognize World War I era massacres of Armenians as genocide if it
    wanted to join the European Union.

    "One can't change the rules in the middle of the game," Council of
    Europe Parliamentary Assembly (PACE) President Rene van der Linden
    told reporters, referring to EU membership conditions for Turkey.

    Referring to the French President, who said Saturday that Turkey
    needed to come to terms with its Ottoman past, van der Linden said:
    "This is not the first time he has changed his mind."

    The EU has not made recognizing the 1915-1917 massacres as genocide
    a condition for entry into the block, and up until Saturday France
    had refused to make a direct link between the two. But when asked
    in Yerevan whether the two should be linked, Chirac said "Honestly,
    I think so."

    "If there are serious questions, we will tackle them but we don't
    add to (existing) conditions," van der Linden said in describing the
    procedure for entry into the EU. "If there is a loss of confidence,
    we create mistrust then the entire negotiation will suffer," then
    lawmaker added.

    Founded 60 years ago, the Strasbourg-based Council of Europe is not
    part of the European Union.

    In a related development, a leading French Socialist who hopes to run
    for the presidency said Sunday his party shared Chirac's view on the
    Armenian genocide. "This is also the position of the Socialist Party,"
    said former finance minister Dominique Strauss-Kahn, a contender
    for selection as the Socialist candidate for next year's French
    presidential election.

    Turkey strongly denies responsibility for genocide, arguing that
    300,000 Armenians and at least as many Turks died in an internal
    conflict sparked by attempts by Armenians to win independence in
    eastern Anatolia.

    "We have considered that acknowledgment ... of the Armenian genocide
    should be made a condition of Turkey's entry into the EU," Strauss-Kahn
    said on television. "There are plenty of other conditions, but this
    one is symbolic," he stressed.

    France, with 400,000 citizens of Armenian descent, officially
    recognized the events as genocide in 2001, putting a strain on
    relations with Turkey. Previously, however, France had refused to make
    a direct link between the genocide issue and Turkey's EU membership
    bid. The bloc of 25 nations has not made it a condition.
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