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TURKEY ANGRY OVER FRANCE'S GENOCIDE BILL
Global Post
http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/regions/europe/turkey/111220/turkey-angry-over-frances-genocide-bill
Dec 20 2011
Turkey is angry that France may adopt a law making it illegal to deny
the "Armenian Genocide."
Despite wide disapproval from Turkey, France may pass a bill making it
illegal to deny the Armenian genocide, the Associated Press reported.
The bill is being considered in France's lower house of parliament.
Punishment for denial will include a one-year prison term and a large
fine (about $58,500).
This will put denying the genocide, which is estimated to have killed
1.5 million Armenians during World War I, on par "with Holocaust
denial, which was banned in the country in 1990."
According to BBC News, more than 20 countries acknowledge the mass
killings as a genocide.
These countries include Cyprus, Uruguay, Poland, Chile, Argentina,
Canada, Belgium, Russia, Lebanon, Greece, Italy, Switzerland, the
Netherlands, Lithuania, the Vatican, and Slovakia.
Turkey, however, does not acknowledge it.
The country puts the death toll closer to 300,000.
It also states that many Turks were killed as well, when "Armenians
rose up against the Ottoman Empire during World War I when Russian
troops invaded eastern Anatolia, now eastern Turkey," the BBC reported.
The prime minister of Turkey, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, wrote to French
President Nicolas Sarkozy last week saying that the bill was "hostile"
and it "targeted Turkey and Turks living in France."
Turkey fears that if France ended up passing this bill, "serious and
irreparable" consequences will occur for Franco-Turkish relations,
according to Al Jazeera.
"It is not possible for us to accept this bill," said Abdullah Gul,
the president of Turkey.
Gul believes that the bill will deny Turks "the freedom to reject
unfair and groundless accusations targeting our country and our
nation."
From: Baghdasarian
Global Post
http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/regions/europe/turkey/111220/turkey-angry-over-frances-genocide-bill
Dec 20 2011
Turkey is angry that France may adopt a law making it illegal to deny
the "Armenian Genocide."
Despite wide disapproval from Turkey, France may pass a bill making it
illegal to deny the Armenian genocide, the Associated Press reported.
The bill is being considered in France's lower house of parliament.
Punishment for denial will include a one-year prison term and a large
fine (about $58,500).
This will put denying the genocide, which is estimated to have killed
1.5 million Armenians during World War I, on par "with Holocaust
denial, which was banned in the country in 1990."
According to BBC News, more than 20 countries acknowledge the mass
killings as a genocide.
These countries include Cyprus, Uruguay, Poland, Chile, Argentina,
Canada, Belgium, Russia, Lebanon, Greece, Italy, Switzerland, the
Netherlands, Lithuania, the Vatican, and Slovakia.
Turkey, however, does not acknowledge it.
The country puts the death toll closer to 300,000.
It also states that many Turks were killed as well, when "Armenians
rose up against the Ottoman Empire during World War I when Russian
troops invaded eastern Anatolia, now eastern Turkey," the BBC reported.
The prime minister of Turkey, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, wrote to French
President Nicolas Sarkozy last week saying that the bill was "hostile"
and it "targeted Turkey and Turks living in France."
Turkey fears that if France ended up passing this bill, "serious and
irreparable" consequences will occur for Franco-Turkish relations,
according to Al Jazeera.
"It is not possible for us to accept this bill," said Abdullah Gul,
the president of Turkey.
Gul believes that the bill will deny Turks "the freedom to reject
unfair and groundless accusations targeting our country and our
nation."
From: Baghdasarian