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TURKISH BUSINESS GROUP LOBBIES AGAINST FRENCH GENOCIDE DENIAL BILL
NTV MSNBC, Turkey
Oct 11 2006
Representatives of the TOBB held talks with French business leaders
Monday to discuss the dangers to trade implied in the legislation.
PARIS - A senior Turkish business leader has warned that if the
French parliament passes legislation making the denial of the alleged
massacre of Armenians by the Ottoman Empire a crime that relations
between France and Turkey will be badly harmed.
Rifat Hisarciklioglu, the Chairman of the Union of Chambers and
Commodity Exchanges of Turkey (TOBB), said that the vote in the French
parliament on October 12 on the legislation had grave consequences
for ties between Turkey and France.
In Paris at the head of a TOBB delegation to lobby against the bill,
which envisages fines of 45,000 euros for anyone denying the alleged
genocide, Hisarciklioglu said he had told French business leaders
that the issue should be dealt with using common sense and logic,
not emotions.
"I am having difficulty in understanding why a country like France,
which is a pioneer in democracy, secularism and freedom of expression,
has brought up a resolution on making denial of the so-called Armenian
genocide a crime," Hisarciklioglu said Tuesday night following a
dinner with representatives of the Movement of French Enterprises
(MEDEF) and the French chambers of commerce.
NTV MSNBC, Turkey
Oct 11 2006
Representatives of the TOBB held talks with French business leaders
Monday to discuss the dangers to trade implied in the legislation.
PARIS - A senior Turkish business leader has warned that if the
French parliament passes legislation making the denial of the alleged
massacre of Armenians by the Ottoman Empire a crime that relations
between France and Turkey will be badly harmed.
Rifat Hisarciklioglu, the Chairman of the Union of Chambers and
Commodity Exchanges of Turkey (TOBB), said that the vote in the French
parliament on October 12 on the legislation had grave consequences
for ties between Turkey and France.
In Paris at the head of a TOBB delegation to lobby against the bill,
which envisages fines of 45,000 euros for anyone denying the alleged
genocide, Hisarciklioglu said he had told French business leaders
that the issue should be dealt with using common sense and logic,
not emotions.
"I am having difficulty in understanding why a country like France,
which is a pioneer in democracy, secularism and freedom of expression,
has brought up a resolution on making denial of the so-called Armenian
genocide a crime," Hisarciklioglu said Tuesday night following a
dinner with representatives of the Movement of French Enterprises
(MEDEF) and the French chambers of commerce.