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EU ENLARGEMENT CHIEF WARNS ON FRENCH ARMENIA VOTE
By Paul Taylor
Reuters
San Diego Union Tribune, CA
Oct 9 2006
BRUSSELS - France's parliament could do serious harm to EU-Turkey
relations if it votes to make it a crime to deny Armenians suffered
genocide at the hands of Ottoman Turks, the EU's enlargement chief
said on Monday.
Adopting the Socialist opposition bill would also deal a blow to
efforts by Turkish intellectuals to re-examine a painful and sensitive
episode in their country's history, Enlargement Commissioner Olli
Rehn told Reuters in a telephone interview.
He said he would be in contact with the French government before
Thursday's vote to point out the consequences.
'The French law on the Armenian genocide is of course a matter for
French lawmakers, but there is a lot at stake for the European Union
as well, and the decision may have very serious consequences for
EU-Turkey relations,' said Rehn, who is in charge of Turkey's EU
membership negotiations.
'Such a law would have counter-productive consequences because it would
say to the Turks that there is nothing to discuss. Here you have the
final truth and if you happen to deny it you end up in prison in an
EU member state,' he said.
'This would put in danger the efforts of all those in Turkey -
intellectuals, historians, academics, authors - who truly want to
develop an open and serious debate without taboos and for the sake
of freedom of expression,' Rehn added.
Ankara strongly denies estimates that 1.5 million Armenians perished at
the hands of Ottoman Turkey between 1915 and 1921 or that there was a
systematic genocide. It says large numbers of both Christian Armenians
and Muslim Turks died in partisan conflict raging at that time.
HISTORIANS' COMMISSION
Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan has proposed that Turkey and
Armenia establish a joint historians' commission to examine the
evidence, but Armenia has rejected the idea.
Rehn said creating such a commission would be an important step
forward that could help reconciliation and promote an overall political
settlement between Turkey and Armenia.
French President Jacques Chirac suggested on a visit to Yerevan
last month that recognition of the Armenian 'genocide' should be a
condition of Turkish EU entry.
The 400,000-strong Armenian diaspora is politically influential in
France ahead of next year's presidential and parliamentary elections.
Earlier on Monday, French Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy set three
conditions to avoid adoption of the bill, including a joint historians'
commission, the reopening of Turkey's closed borders with Armenia
and that Turkey repeal a law used to prosecute people who speak of
an Armenian 'genocide'.
Sarkozy, conservative front-runner for president and leader of the
ruling Union for a Popular Movement, said he had set the conditions in
a telephone call with Erdogan, who has threatened economic reprisals
against France if the measure passes.
Opinion polls show a majority of voters oppose admitting Turkey to
the EU, so an estrangement with Ankara over the Armenian issue might
not be unwelcome to Paris.
By Paul Taylor
Reuters
San Diego Union Tribune, CA
Oct 9 2006
BRUSSELS - France's parliament could do serious harm to EU-Turkey
relations if it votes to make it a crime to deny Armenians suffered
genocide at the hands of Ottoman Turks, the EU's enlargement chief
said on Monday.
Adopting the Socialist opposition bill would also deal a blow to
efforts by Turkish intellectuals to re-examine a painful and sensitive
episode in their country's history, Enlargement Commissioner Olli
Rehn told Reuters in a telephone interview.
He said he would be in contact with the French government before
Thursday's vote to point out the consequences.
'The French law on the Armenian genocide is of course a matter for
French lawmakers, but there is a lot at stake for the European Union
as well, and the decision may have very serious consequences for
EU-Turkey relations,' said Rehn, who is in charge of Turkey's EU
membership negotiations.
'Such a law would have counter-productive consequences because it would
say to the Turks that there is nothing to discuss. Here you have the
final truth and if you happen to deny it you end up in prison in an
EU member state,' he said.
'This would put in danger the efforts of all those in Turkey -
intellectuals, historians, academics, authors - who truly want to
develop an open and serious debate without taboos and for the sake
of freedom of expression,' Rehn added.
Ankara strongly denies estimates that 1.5 million Armenians perished at
the hands of Ottoman Turkey between 1915 and 1921 or that there was a
systematic genocide. It says large numbers of both Christian Armenians
and Muslim Turks died in partisan conflict raging at that time.
HISTORIANS' COMMISSION
Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan has proposed that Turkey and
Armenia establish a joint historians' commission to examine the
evidence, but Armenia has rejected the idea.
Rehn said creating such a commission would be an important step
forward that could help reconciliation and promote an overall political
settlement between Turkey and Armenia.
French President Jacques Chirac suggested on a visit to Yerevan
last month that recognition of the Armenian 'genocide' should be a
condition of Turkish EU entry.
The 400,000-strong Armenian diaspora is politically influential in
France ahead of next year's presidential and parliamentary elections.
Earlier on Monday, French Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy set three
conditions to avoid adoption of the bill, including a joint historians'
commission, the reopening of Turkey's closed borders with Armenia
and that Turkey repeal a law used to prosecute people who speak of
an Armenian 'genocide'.
Sarkozy, conservative front-runner for president and leader of the
ruling Union for a Popular Movement, said he had set the conditions in
a telephone call with Erdogan, who has threatened economic reprisals
against France if the measure passes.
Opinion polls show a majority of voters oppose admitting Turkey to
the EU, so an estrangement with Ankara over the Armenian issue might
not be unwelcome to Paris.