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TURKEY CALLS ON FRANCE TO ABANDON GENOCIDE LAW
eTaiwan News
http://www.taiwannews.com.tw/etn/news_content.php?id=1793132
Dec 20 2011
Turkey's president on Tuesday called on France to abandon a draft
bill that would punish anyone denying that the World War II-era mass
killings of Armenians was genocide, further souring relations between
the two countries.
The lower house of the French Parliament will debate Thursday whether
to criminalize the denial that the killings by Ottoman Turks more
than 90 years ago amounted to genocide with a punishment of one
year in prison and a (EURO)45,000 ($59,000) fine. That would bring
legislation in line with how France treats denial of the Holocaust.
France's foreign minister reminded a delegation of visiting Turkish
parliamentarians late Tuesday of President Nicolas Sarkozy's call
in October for Turkey to "make a gesture of memory" and recognize
its history, just as France has done by recognizing the role of the
French state in the Nazi deportation of Jews during World War II.
Alain Juppe said he is convinced that ties and strategic interests
between Paris and Ankara "are sufficiently strong to overcome
challenges," a ministry statement said.
Turkey vehemently rejects the term genocide. It insists the deaths
occurred during civil unrest as the Ottoman Empire collapsed and
that there were losses on both sides. It has threatened to withdraw
its ambassador to France if the bill is passed and warned of "grave
consequences" to economic and political ties.
President Abdullah Gul issued a strong statement Tuesday appealing
to France to drop the draft law from its "agenda."
"It is impossible for us to accept a draft law directed toward
eliminating the freedom to reject unjust and groundless accusations
against our country and our people," the Turkish president said.
"I hope that France will soon abandon the initiative which will put
France in a position of a country that does not respect freedom of
expression and does not allow objective scientific research," he said.
Gul said it was "strange and thought-provoking" that the law comes
ahead of next year's presidential elections in France, suggesting that
the move was aimed at winning the votes of Armenian-French citizens.
"I want to hope that France will not sacrifice the Turkish-French
friendship which goes back hundreds of years, its common interests
and alliance for petty political calculations," he added.
The genocide bill threatens to further strain Turkish-French relations
already tense over Sarkozy's opposition to Turkey's bid to join the
European Union.
Signs of the tensions were evident Tuesday: Gul's media adviser,
Ahmet Sever, told The Associated Press that the Turkish president
decided to issue the statement after Sarkozy failed to take his calls.
"We tried (to reach Sarkozy) for the past three days, but his aides
gave excuses to string us along," Sever said. "He (Sarkozy) shied
away from talking to us."
No one was immediately available for comment at the French president's
office.
In October, Sarkozy traveled to Armenia and urged Turkey to recognize
the 1915 killings as genocide, hinting then that failure to do so
could force France to change its law and make such denials a criminal
offense.
"Turkey, which is a great country, would honor itself by revisiting
its history like other countries in the world have done," Sarkozy
said during his visit to the Armenian capital, Yerevan.
France went into damage control on Tuesday, ahead of a meeting between
Juppe and the Turkish parliamentary delegation, headed by the head
of the foreign affairs commission, Volkan Bozkir, visiting France to
lobby French legislators against the bill.
Foreign Ministry spokesman Bernard Valero said France wanted to stress
to the visitors that the proposal to be debated Thursday by lawmakers
is a "parliamentary initiative," a way of distancing Sarkozy and the
government from the measure.
Earlier, government spokeswoman Valerie Pecresse did likewise,
stressing that the draft bill does not simply target the Armenian
genocide. The text is "very broad in a way that it can apply to all
genocide recognized by France in the future," she said, noting that
it also covers slavery.
Both she and the Foreign Ministry stressed the importance of ties
between Paris and Ankara, from their common strategic interests in
reaching peace in Syria">Syria and Afghanistan to their roles as NATO
members and bilateral ties.
Historians estimate that up to 1.5 million Armenians were killed
during the massacre, with experts saying it was the first genocide
of the 20th century.
The bill would make it a crime to deny any genocide, war crime or
crime against humanity recognized as such by French laws, and put
Armenian genocide denial on a par with Holocaust denial, which was
banned in the country in 1990.
eTaiwan News
http://www.taiwannews.com.tw/etn/news_content.php?id=1793132
Dec 20 2011
Turkey's president on Tuesday called on France to abandon a draft
bill that would punish anyone denying that the World War II-era mass
killings of Armenians was genocide, further souring relations between
the two countries.
The lower house of the French Parliament will debate Thursday whether
to criminalize the denial that the killings by Ottoman Turks more
than 90 years ago amounted to genocide with a punishment of one
year in prison and a (EURO)45,000 ($59,000) fine. That would bring
legislation in line with how France treats denial of the Holocaust.
France's foreign minister reminded a delegation of visiting Turkish
parliamentarians late Tuesday of President Nicolas Sarkozy's call
in October for Turkey to "make a gesture of memory" and recognize
its history, just as France has done by recognizing the role of the
French state in the Nazi deportation of Jews during World War II.
Alain Juppe said he is convinced that ties and strategic interests
between Paris and Ankara "are sufficiently strong to overcome
challenges," a ministry statement said.
Turkey vehemently rejects the term genocide. It insists the deaths
occurred during civil unrest as the Ottoman Empire collapsed and
that there were losses on both sides. It has threatened to withdraw
its ambassador to France if the bill is passed and warned of "grave
consequences" to economic and political ties.
President Abdullah Gul issued a strong statement Tuesday appealing
to France to drop the draft law from its "agenda."
"It is impossible for us to accept a draft law directed toward
eliminating the freedom to reject unjust and groundless accusations
against our country and our people," the Turkish president said.
"I hope that France will soon abandon the initiative which will put
France in a position of a country that does not respect freedom of
expression and does not allow objective scientific research," he said.
Gul said it was "strange and thought-provoking" that the law comes
ahead of next year's presidential elections in France, suggesting that
the move was aimed at winning the votes of Armenian-French citizens.
"I want to hope that France will not sacrifice the Turkish-French
friendship which goes back hundreds of years, its common interests
and alliance for petty political calculations," he added.
The genocide bill threatens to further strain Turkish-French relations
already tense over Sarkozy's opposition to Turkey's bid to join the
European Union.
Signs of the tensions were evident Tuesday: Gul's media adviser,
Ahmet Sever, told The Associated Press that the Turkish president
decided to issue the statement after Sarkozy failed to take his calls.
"We tried (to reach Sarkozy) for the past three days, but his aides
gave excuses to string us along," Sever said. "He (Sarkozy) shied
away from talking to us."
No one was immediately available for comment at the French president's
office.
In October, Sarkozy traveled to Armenia and urged Turkey to recognize
the 1915 killings as genocide, hinting then that failure to do so
could force France to change its law and make such denials a criminal
offense.
"Turkey, which is a great country, would honor itself by revisiting
its history like other countries in the world have done," Sarkozy
said during his visit to the Armenian capital, Yerevan.
France went into damage control on Tuesday, ahead of a meeting between
Juppe and the Turkish parliamentary delegation, headed by the head
of the foreign affairs commission, Volkan Bozkir, visiting France to
lobby French legislators against the bill.
Foreign Ministry spokesman Bernard Valero said France wanted to stress
to the visitors that the proposal to be debated Thursday by lawmakers
is a "parliamentary initiative," a way of distancing Sarkozy and the
government from the measure.
Earlier, government spokeswoman Valerie Pecresse did likewise,
stressing that the draft bill does not simply target the Armenian
genocide. The text is "very broad in a way that it can apply to all
genocide recognized by France in the future," she said, noting that
it also covers slavery.
Both she and the Foreign Ministry stressed the importance of ties
between Paris and Ankara, from their common strategic interests in
reaching peace in Syria">Syria and Afghanistan to their roles as NATO
members and bilateral ties.
Historians estimate that up to 1.5 million Armenians were killed
during the massacre, with experts saying it was the first genocide
of the 20th century.
The bill would make it a crime to deny any genocide, war crime or
crime against humanity recognized as such by French laws, and put
Armenian genocide denial on a par with Holocaust denial, which was
banned in the country in 1990.