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NowLebanon, Lebanon
Dec 17 2011Erdogan warns France over `unjust' Armenian genocide bill
Erdogan warns France over `unjust' Armenian genocide bill
December 17, 2011
Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan urged French lawmakers
Saturday not to adopt an Armenian genocide bill, warning again that
the legislation would damage ties between the two countries.
The legislation set to be voted on by the French parliament next
Thursday would make it a crime to deny that the killings of Armenians
by the Ottoman Empire were genocide, a move long resisted by Ankara.
"I hope that the French National Assembly will reverse this error of
penalizing the denial of historical lies," Erdogan told reporters in
Istanbul, lashing out at France over its own bloody colonial past.
"Turkey will oppose by all diplomatic means these populist, unjust and
illegal moves," he said, describing the bill as "electioneering" ahead
of the French presidential election next year.
Erdogan has written to French President Nicolas Sarkozy urging him to
block the bill, or face "serious and irreparable" consequences on
Franco-Turkish relations.
"If the French lawmakers want to remember history, I would advise them
to shed light on the events of Algeria and Rwanda and the roles of
French soldiers," he said.
"No historian, no politician can see genocide in our past. Those who
want to see genocide should look to their own dirty and bloody
history."
If the law is passed as expected next week, anyone in France who
publicly denies the genocide could face a year in jail and a fine of
45,000 euros ($58,000).
Armenia says up to 1.5 million of its people were killed during World
War I by forces belonging to Turkey's former Ottoman Empire.
Turkey rejects the term genocide and says between 300,000 to 500,000
Armenians, and at least as many Turks, died in combat or of starvation
when Armenians rose up and sided with invading Russian forces.
Most historians agree that between 500,000 and 1.5 million Armenians
died in a series of massacres and deportations from Asia Minor in the
Ottoman Empire in 1915 and 1916.
France, which has a large population of Armenian descent, has
recognized the killings as genocide since 2001.
-AFP/NOW Lebanon
http://www.nowlebanon.com/NewsArticleDetails.aspx?ID=343736
From: Baghdasarian
Dec 17 2011Erdogan warns France over `unjust' Armenian genocide bill
Erdogan warns France over `unjust' Armenian genocide bill
December 17, 2011
Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan urged French lawmakers
Saturday not to adopt an Armenian genocide bill, warning again that
the legislation would damage ties between the two countries.
The legislation set to be voted on by the French parliament next
Thursday would make it a crime to deny that the killings of Armenians
by the Ottoman Empire were genocide, a move long resisted by Ankara.
"I hope that the French National Assembly will reverse this error of
penalizing the denial of historical lies," Erdogan told reporters in
Istanbul, lashing out at France over its own bloody colonial past.
"Turkey will oppose by all diplomatic means these populist, unjust and
illegal moves," he said, describing the bill as "electioneering" ahead
of the French presidential election next year.
Erdogan has written to French President Nicolas Sarkozy urging him to
block the bill, or face "serious and irreparable" consequences on
Franco-Turkish relations.
"If the French lawmakers want to remember history, I would advise them
to shed light on the events of Algeria and Rwanda and the roles of
French soldiers," he said.
"No historian, no politician can see genocide in our past. Those who
want to see genocide should look to their own dirty and bloody
history."
If the law is passed as expected next week, anyone in France who
publicly denies the genocide could face a year in jail and a fine of
45,000 euros ($58,000).
Armenia says up to 1.5 million of its people were killed during World
War I by forces belonging to Turkey's former Ottoman Empire.
Turkey rejects the term genocide and says between 300,000 to 500,000
Armenians, and at least as many Turks, died in combat or of starvation
when Armenians rose up and sided with invading Russian forces.
Most historians agree that between 500,000 and 1.5 million Armenians
died in a series of massacres and deportations from Asia Minor in the
Ottoman Empire in 1915 and 1916.
France, which has a large population of Armenian descent, has
recognized the killings as genocide since 2001.
-AFP/NOW Lebanon
http://www.nowlebanon.com/NewsArticleDetails.aspx?ID=343736
From: Baghdasarian