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Reuters UK
Dec 17 2011
Erdogan attacks France over Armenian "genocide" law
(Reuters) - Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan told France on Saturday to
study its own history rather than Turkey's in a warning against the
French parliament passing a law making it illegal to deny the mass
killing of Armenians in the Ottoman Empire was genocide.
French President Nicolas Sarkozy, a major critic of Turkey's flagging
bid to join the European Union, told Turkey in October that unless it
recognised the 1915 killings as genocide, France would consider making
denial a crime.
Erdogan has already sent Sarkozy a letter warning political and
economic relations would suffer grave consequences if the bill was
passed into law and he reiterated the message at a news conference on
Saturday.
"Those who want to see genocide should turn round and look at their
own dirty, bloody history," Erdogan said after talks with Libyan
National Transitional Council chairman, Mustafa Abdel Jalil.
The draft law, put forward by a deputy from Sarkozy's party, is due to
go before parliament next Thursday and proposes a one-year prison
sentence and 45,000 euro ($58,500) fine for denying the killings
constitute genocide.
"If the French National Assembly wants to take an interest in history
let it take the trouble of illuminating what happened in Africa, in
Rwanda and Algeria," Erdogan said in his first operation since
recovering from surgery.
"Let it go and research how many people French soldiers killed in
Algeria, how they killed them and what inhumane methods they used."
France is Turkey's fifth-biggest export market and sixth-biggest
country from which it imports goods and services.
DENIAL
Armenia, backed by many historians and parliaments, says some 1.5
million Christian Armenians were killed in what is now eastern Turkey
during World War One in a deliberate policy of genocide ordered by the
Ottoman government.
Ankara denies the killings constitute genocide and says many Muslim
Turks and Kurds were also put to death as Russian troops invaded
eastern Anatolia, often aided by Armenian militias.
The French Foreign Ministry has stressed the draft law was not a
government initiative.
Erdogan said in his letter common sense should prevail over political
calculations, a hint the draft law was aimed at securing the support
of 500,000 French voters of Armenian descent in elections due in five
months time.
Turkey and Armenia signed a peace accord in 2009, agreeing to set up a
commission of international experts to examine the events of 1915,
restore diplomatic ties and open their border to trade, but neither
side has ratified the deal.
Turkey has increasingly flexed its rising economic and political
muscle on the world stage and in the Middle East as its economy
continues to show strong growth while western Europe suffers a
financial crisis.
(Writing by Daren Butler; Editing by Sophie Hares)
http://uk.reuters.com/article/2011/12/17/uk-turkey-france-idUKTRE7BG0E220111217
Dec 17 2011
Erdogan attacks France over Armenian "genocide" law
(Reuters) - Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan told France on Saturday to
study its own history rather than Turkey's in a warning against the
French parliament passing a law making it illegal to deny the mass
killing of Armenians in the Ottoman Empire was genocide.
French President Nicolas Sarkozy, a major critic of Turkey's flagging
bid to join the European Union, told Turkey in October that unless it
recognised the 1915 killings as genocide, France would consider making
denial a crime.
Erdogan has already sent Sarkozy a letter warning political and
economic relations would suffer grave consequences if the bill was
passed into law and he reiterated the message at a news conference on
Saturday.
"Those who want to see genocide should turn round and look at their
own dirty, bloody history," Erdogan said after talks with Libyan
National Transitional Council chairman, Mustafa Abdel Jalil.
The draft law, put forward by a deputy from Sarkozy's party, is due to
go before parliament next Thursday and proposes a one-year prison
sentence and 45,000 euro ($58,500) fine for denying the killings
constitute genocide.
"If the French National Assembly wants to take an interest in history
let it take the trouble of illuminating what happened in Africa, in
Rwanda and Algeria," Erdogan said in his first operation since
recovering from surgery.
"Let it go and research how many people French soldiers killed in
Algeria, how they killed them and what inhumane methods they used."
France is Turkey's fifth-biggest export market and sixth-biggest
country from which it imports goods and services.
DENIAL
Armenia, backed by many historians and parliaments, says some 1.5
million Christian Armenians were killed in what is now eastern Turkey
during World War One in a deliberate policy of genocide ordered by the
Ottoman government.
Ankara denies the killings constitute genocide and says many Muslim
Turks and Kurds were also put to death as Russian troops invaded
eastern Anatolia, often aided by Armenian militias.
The French Foreign Ministry has stressed the draft law was not a
government initiative.
Erdogan said in his letter common sense should prevail over political
calculations, a hint the draft law was aimed at securing the support
of 500,000 French voters of Armenian descent in elections due in five
months time.
Turkey and Armenia signed a peace accord in 2009, agreeing to set up a
commission of international experts to examine the events of 1915,
restore diplomatic ties and open their border to trade, but neither
side has ratified the deal.
Turkey has increasingly flexed its rising economic and political
muscle on the world stage and in the Middle East as its economy
continues to show strong growth while western Europe suffers a
financial crisis.
(Writing by Daren Butler; Editing by Sophie Hares)
http://uk.reuters.com/article/2011/12/17/uk-turkey-france-idUKTRE7BG0E220111217