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TURKEY VOWS SANCTIONS IF FRANCE ADOPTS GENOCIDE BILL
The News - International, Pakistan
Oct 9 2006
ANKARA: France risks being barred from economic projects in Turkey
if it adopts a controversial bill on the massacre of Armenians under
the Ottoman Empire, Turkish Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul said in
remarks published on Sunday. The draft law, to be debated in the
French parliament Thursday, calls for five years in prison and a fine
of 45,000 euros (57,000 dollars) for anyone who denies that the World
War I massacres constituted a genocide.
If the bill is passed, Gul said, French participation in major
economic projects in Turkey, including the planned construction of a
nuclear plant for which the tender process is expected to soon begin,
will suffer.
"We will be absolutely unable to have (such cooperation) in big
tenders," he told the popular Hurriyet daily, adding that he had
"openly" warned his French counterpart Philippe Douste-Blazy about
the repercussions of the bill.
"The French will lose Turkey," Gul warned in further remarks, to the
Yeni Safak newspaper. Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan was also
furious. "This is an issue between Turkey and Armenia. It is none
of France's business," he said late Saturday in Istanbul, quoted by
Anatolia news agency.
"If Turkey's prime minister-or any other minister, a historian or an
intellectual-goes to France one day and says it was not a genocide,
what are you going to do? Throw that person in jail?" Erdogan asked.
Ankara says the bill is designed as a political gesture to
France's Armenian community. Many here also see it as a punch below
the belt by opponents of Turkey's European Union membership that will
tarnish the country's image in Europe and fan anti-Western sentiment
among Turks.
Faced with increasing EU warnings that it is failing to ensure
freedom of expression, Turkey has accused the bloc of applying double
standards, arguing that France itself was blocking free debate on a
historical subject by criminalizing genocide denial. About 500 people,
activists from a small left-wing party, took to the streets in Istanbul
Sunday to protest the bill, laying a black wreath outside the French
consulate. "France stop! A boycott is coming," they chanted. "The
genocide is a lie," their banners read.
The Ankara Trade Chamber, which groups about 3,000 businesses,
threatened to boycott French goods, calling EU countries
"hypocritical."
A senior lawmaker has also warned that the Turkish parliament may
retaliate with a law branding the killings of Algerians under French
colonial rule as genocide and introducing prison terms for those who
deny it.
On Saturday, Erdogan met with representatives of French companies
doing business in Turkey, among them industrial giants such as
carmaker Renault and food group Danone, urging them to lobby French
MPs to vote down the bill. The draft was first submitted in May but
the debate ran out of parliamentary time before a vote could be held.
In 2001 France adopted a resolution recognizing the massacres of
Armenians as genocide, prompting Ankara to retaliate by sidelining
French companies from public tenders and cancelling several projects
awarded to French firms.
The massacres are one of most controversial episodes in Turkish
history and open debate on the issue has only recently begun in Turkey,
often sending nationalist sentiment into frenzy. Armenians claim up
to 1.5 million of their kin were slaughtered in orchestrated killings
between 1915 and 1917.
Turkey categorically rejects the genocide label, arguing that
300,000 Armenians and at least as many Turks died in civil strife
when Armenians rose for independence in eastern Anatolia and sided
with invading Russian troops as the Ottoman Empire was falling apart.
The News - International, Pakistan
Oct 9 2006
ANKARA: France risks being barred from economic projects in Turkey
if it adopts a controversial bill on the massacre of Armenians under
the Ottoman Empire, Turkish Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul said in
remarks published on Sunday. The draft law, to be debated in the
French parliament Thursday, calls for five years in prison and a fine
of 45,000 euros (57,000 dollars) for anyone who denies that the World
War I massacres constituted a genocide.
If the bill is passed, Gul said, French participation in major
economic projects in Turkey, including the planned construction of a
nuclear plant for which the tender process is expected to soon begin,
will suffer.
"We will be absolutely unable to have (such cooperation) in big
tenders," he told the popular Hurriyet daily, adding that he had
"openly" warned his French counterpart Philippe Douste-Blazy about
the repercussions of the bill.
"The French will lose Turkey," Gul warned in further remarks, to the
Yeni Safak newspaper. Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan was also
furious. "This is an issue between Turkey and Armenia. It is none
of France's business," he said late Saturday in Istanbul, quoted by
Anatolia news agency.
"If Turkey's prime minister-or any other minister, a historian or an
intellectual-goes to France one day and says it was not a genocide,
what are you going to do? Throw that person in jail?" Erdogan asked.
Ankara says the bill is designed as a political gesture to
France's Armenian community. Many here also see it as a punch below
the belt by opponents of Turkey's European Union membership that will
tarnish the country's image in Europe and fan anti-Western sentiment
among Turks.
Faced with increasing EU warnings that it is failing to ensure
freedom of expression, Turkey has accused the bloc of applying double
standards, arguing that France itself was blocking free debate on a
historical subject by criminalizing genocide denial. About 500 people,
activists from a small left-wing party, took to the streets in Istanbul
Sunday to protest the bill, laying a black wreath outside the French
consulate. "France stop! A boycott is coming," they chanted. "The
genocide is a lie," their banners read.
The Ankara Trade Chamber, which groups about 3,000 businesses,
threatened to boycott French goods, calling EU countries
"hypocritical."
A senior lawmaker has also warned that the Turkish parliament may
retaliate with a law branding the killings of Algerians under French
colonial rule as genocide and introducing prison terms for those who
deny it.
On Saturday, Erdogan met with representatives of French companies
doing business in Turkey, among them industrial giants such as
carmaker Renault and food group Danone, urging them to lobby French
MPs to vote down the bill. The draft was first submitted in May but
the debate ran out of parliamentary time before a vote could be held.
In 2001 France adopted a resolution recognizing the massacres of
Armenians as genocide, prompting Ankara to retaliate by sidelining
French companies from public tenders and cancelling several projects
awarded to French firms.
The massacres are one of most controversial episodes in Turkish
history and open debate on the issue has only recently begun in Turkey,
often sending nationalist sentiment into frenzy. Armenians claim up
to 1.5 million of their kin were slaughtered in orchestrated killings
between 1915 and 1917.
Turkey categorically rejects the genocide label, arguing that
300,000 Armenians and at least as many Turks died in civil strife
when Armenians rose for independence in eastern Anatolia and sided
with invading Russian troops as the Ottoman Empire was falling apart.