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TURKEY MOVES TO LOBBY OVER FRENCH BILL
Press TV
http://presstv.com/detail/216902.html
Dec 21 2011
Iran
A Turkish delegation has met with French officials in a last-minute
attempt to prevent the passing of a bill by the French parliament
that would criminalize the denial of the alleged Armenian genocide,
Press TV reports.
The Turkish delegation including lawmakers and businessmen held
talks with French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe and President
Nicolas Sarkozy's foreign policy advisor Jean-David Levitte on the
controversial bill.
They argued that the bill was an attempt to win support among voters
of Armenian origin during the next French presidential election due
in April next year.
The French parliament is expected to vote on whether to punish people
who deny the mass killing of Armenians by the Ottoman Empire during
the World War I. If the bill becomes a law, deniers could face up to
a year in prison and a fine of EUR 45,000.
Turkey says there has been no genocide, noting that the 500,000 of
people who died between 1915 and 1917 were the casualties of World
War I.
Armenians, however, insists the Ottomans deliberately perpetrated
genocide and killed 3 times more than the figure.
France's ruling party which is behind the bill has not changed its
position since 2006 when a similar law without punishments came
into effect.
"The question of the genocide is so strong, the proofs of the
genocide are also so strong," said Patrick Devedjian, a lawmaker of
the governing UMP party in France.
Ankara has warned France against passing the bill, saying the country
would retaliate by beginning to recount the colonial history of France
to the world.
Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has strongly criticized
France over the bill.
Erdogan, in a news conference last week, said that "those who want
to see genocide should turn round and look at their own dirty,
bloody history."
Press TV
http://presstv.com/detail/216902.html
Dec 21 2011
Iran
A Turkish delegation has met with French officials in a last-minute
attempt to prevent the passing of a bill by the French parliament
that would criminalize the denial of the alleged Armenian genocide,
Press TV reports.
The Turkish delegation including lawmakers and businessmen held
talks with French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe and President
Nicolas Sarkozy's foreign policy advisor Jean-David Levitte on the
controversial bill.
They argued that the bill was an attempt to win support among voters
of Armenian origin during the next French presidential election due
in April next year.
The French parliament is expected to vote on whether to punish people
who deny the mass killing of Armenians by the Ottoman Empire during
the World War I. If the bill becomes a law, deniers could face up to
a year in prison and a fine of EUR 45,000.
Turkey says there has been no genocide, noting that the 500,000 of
people who died between 1915 and 1917 were the casualties of World
War I.
Armenians, however, insists the Ottomans deliberately perpetrated
genocide and killed 3 times more than the figure.
France's ruling party which is behind the bill has not changed its
position since 2006 when a similar law without punishments came
into effect.
"The question of the genocide is so strong, the proofs of the
genocide are also so strong," said Patrick Devedjian, a lawmaker of
the governing UMP party in France.
Ankara has warned France against passing the bill, saying the country
would retaliate by beginning to recount the colonial history of France
to the world.
Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has strongly criticized
France over the bill.
Erdogan, in a news conference last week, said that "those who want
to see genocide should turn round and look at their own dirty,
bloody history."