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The Australian
Dec 19 2011
French genocide bill angers Turkey From: The Australian
December 19, 2011 12:00AM
TURKEY'S prime minister yesterday sharply criticised France for a bill
that would make it a crime to deny the World War I-era mass killing of
Armenians was genocide.
Saying France should investigate what he claimed was its own "dirty
and bloody history" in Algeria and Rwanda, Recep Tayyip Erdogan
insisted Turkey would respond "through all kinds of diplomatic means".
Historians estimate that up to 1.5 million Armenians were killed by
Ottoman Turks as their empire collapsed, an event many international
experts regard as genocide and that France recognised as such in 2001.
Turkish leaders reject the term, arguing that the toll is inflated,
that there were deaths on both sides and that those killed were
victims of civil war and unrest.
On December 22, the lower house of French parliament will debate a
proposal that would make denying that the massacre was genocide
punishable by up to a year in prison and 45,000 ($58,500) in fines,
putting it on par with Holocaust denial, banned in the country in
1990. Mr Erdogan criticised France yesterday, saying there were
reports that France was responsible for the deaths of 45,000 people in
Algeria in 1945 and for the massacre of up to 800,000 people in Rwanda
in 1994.
..."No historian, no politician can see genocide in our history," Mr
Erdogan said. "Those who do want to see genocide should turn around
and look at their own dirty and bloody history.
"The French National Assembly should shed light on Algeria, it should
shed light on Rwanda," he said.
France had troops in Rwanda, and Rwandan President Paul Kagame has
accused the country of doing little to stop the country's genocide.
There was no immediate reaction from France. Ties between the two
countries are already strained by French President Nicolas Sarkozy's
opposition to Turkey's bid to join the EU.
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/world/french-genocide-bill-angers-turkey/story-e6frg6so-1226225157391
Dec 19 2011
French genocide bill angers Turkey From: The Australian
December 19, 2011 12:00AM
TURKEY'S prime minister yesterday sharply criticised France for a bill
that would make it a crime to deny the World War I-era mass killing of
Armenians was genocide.
Saying France should investigate what he claimed was its own "dirty
and bloody history" in Algeria and Rwanda, Recep Tayyip Erdogan
insisted Turkey would respond "through all kinds of diplomatic means".
Historians estimate that up to 1.5 million Armenians were killed by
Ottoman Turks as their empire collapsed, an event many international
experts regard as genocide and that France recognised as such in 2001.
Turkish leaders reject the term, arguing that the toll is inflated,
that there were deaths on both sides and that those killed were
victims of civil war and unrest.
On December 22, the lower house of French parliament will debate a
proposal that would make denying that the massacre was genocide
punishable by up to a year in prison and 45,000 ($58,500) in fines,
putting it on par with Holocaust denial, banned in the country in
1990. Mr Erdogan criticised France yesterday, saying there were
reports that France was responsible for the deaths of 45,000 people in
Algeria in 1945 and for the massacre of up to 800,000 people in Rwanda
in 1994.
..."No historian, no politician can see genocide in our history," Mr
Erdogan said. "Those who do want to see genocide should turn around
and look at their own dirty and bloody history.
"The French National Assembly should shed light on Algeria, it should
shed light on Rwanda," he said.
France had troops in Rwanda, and Rwandan President Paul Kagame has
accused the country of doing little to stop the country's genocide.
There was no immediate reaction from France. Ties between the two
countries are already strained by French President Nicolas Sarkozy's
opposition to Turkey's bid to join the EU.
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/world/french-genocide-bill-angers-turkey/story-e6frg6so-1226225157391