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  • BAKU: Turkey Sends Delegations To France To Avert "Genocide" Bill On

    TURKEY SENDS DELEGATIONS TO FRANCE TO AVERT "GENOCIDE" BILL ON ALL FRONTS

    Trend
    Dec 20 2011
    Azerbaijan

    20 December 2011, 04:40 (GMT+04:00) Turkey has been lobbying with full
    force to counter a French bill that aims to penalize denial of alleged
    "Armenian genocide" in France, as multiple delegations from the ruling
    party, opposition lawmakers, Turkish business people and civil society
    organizations embark on a Paris trip to warn French officials of the
    possible damage the denial bill could cause, Today's Zaman reported.

    "Our hope is that the bill will not be put on the agenda on Dec. 22,"
    Volkan Bozkır, head of Parliament's Foreign Affairs Commission, told
    the Cihan news agency on Monday, as he led the Ankara delegation to
    Paris earlier this week to relay Turkey's concerns to French officials,
    whom the delegation will meet until Thursday. In the event that the
    bill gets placed on the agenda, Bozkır expressed hope that the denial
    proposal would get "aborted" by the French Senate. Bozkır's delegation
    is expected to meet Jean Levitte, French President Nicolas Sarkozy's
    diplomacy advisor, and French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe on Tuesday,
    Cihan reported.

    As part of efforts to express Turkey's discomfort with the bill,
    which makes denial of alleged "Armenian genocide" a crime punishable
    by a one-year prison sentence and a fine of 45,000 euros, Bozkır's
    delegation reaffirmed faith in the strength of Turkish-French relations
    in Paris, but warned that the bill could erupt into a crisis at a time
    when relations were at their best. "Disruption in relations between
    Turkey and France will not yield positive results in Turkey either,
    but we have run out of patience," he said in hope that Turkish warnings
    bring about reconsideration with the French legislature.

    Turkish-French relations had sustained a crisis when the French Senate
    in 2001 passed a law that recognizes the killing of Armenians during
    the collapse of the Ottoman Empire as "genocide", but relations were
    repaired in its aftermath.

    The Parliament delegation led by Bozkır is expected to conduct
    bilateral meetings with various French officials, starting with Axel
    Poniatowski, president of the foreign affairs commission in parliament,
    and Pierre Moscovici of the Socialist Party, Cihan reported. Another
    meeting with Bernard Accoyer, parliament speaker, is also on the
    agenda of the delegation, after they meet with Levitte and Juppe.

    Opposition Republican People's Party (CHP) lawmakers Haluk Koc and
    Osman Koruturk were also dispatched from Ankara by CHP leader Kemal
    Kılıcdaroglu to contact French officials to discuss the probable
    risks of the bill, the Anatolia news agency reported over the weekend.

    Another CHP lawmaker, Akif Hamzacebi, also alleged on Monday that
    "French history is full of dirty pages," referring to "massacres in
    Rwanda and Algeria," as he suggested that France would not be fit to
    lead discussions regarding killing and "genocide", Anatolia reported.

    The French bill also triggered a wave of reaction from Turkish
    business circles, which have expressed their reservations regarding
    the financial implications of the passage of such a denial bill,
    since France and Turkey have strong mutual trade ties, and both
    countries have several companies that conduct business with each
    other. A delegation consisting of businesspeople, led by Turkish
    Union of Chambers and Commodity Exchanges (TOBB) President Rifat
    Hisarcıklıoglu and Turkish Industrialists and Businessmen's
    Association (TUSİAD) Chairwoman Umit Boyner is also scheduled
    to engage in contacts with French business people with the aim of
    convincing them to increase pressure on French officials regarding
    the bill.

    Last week, Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu invited executives of
    French companies investing heavily in Turkey to the Foreign Ministry
    and discussed the possible damage their business might receive in the
    aftermath of the bill. Davutoglu told reporters after the meeting that
    it was the French executives' call whether to act on the warning and
    pressure French parties.

    Civil society organizations (CSO) both inside and outside Turkey
    also issued harsh messages to France, as two Germany-based CSOs
    made statements on Monday that France would be blocking freedom of
    expression, on top of risking its ties with Turkey, an ancient ally.

    They elaborated by saying that the law would bar historians from
    conducting objective research and expressing their views, in fear
    of conviction under the proposed law. They further urged France to
    leave history to historians, whom they said did not share the same
    opinion on the incidents of 1915 and said multiple archives should
    be opened up to clarify the issue.

    In a surprising development, the Chief of Staff announced on Monday
    that a French military transportation plane violated Turkish airspace
    on the southwestern coast of the country for three minutes on Saturday,
    the Anka news agency reported. The Chief of Staff announcement also
    noted that the incident was referred to the Foreign Ministry. The
    violation constituted the first incident of a violated of Turkish
    airspace this year, as such violations usually occur between Turkey
    and Greece, according to Anka.

    Meanwhile on Sunday, Davutoglu raised the level of official warnings
    to France, saying relations would be hurt and the Turkish ambassador
    would be withdrawn if the bill passes and pledging an exact retaliation
    to France: Turkey would speak of French massacres of the past wherever
    they occurred, particularly with regard to Africa.

    "We are ready to open up archives and conduct research on the matter,
    on any platform. This is what facing history is," Davutoglu said at
    a ministerial EU progress review meeting in Konya, in response to
    Sarkozy's remarks that Turkey should face its past and recognize
    the alleged "genocide". "If you try to take away our opportunity
    to face history [by blocking freedom of expression], we will start
    commenting on French colonial history whichever country we visit,"
    he said to warn that Turkey will wage a campaign similar to Sarkozy's
    and recall French killings of the past, particularly in Africa.

    If we are going to dig up all the files from history, we will dig
    them all up, Davutoglu added, warning France that Turkey would force
    the country to face past actions by talking about "facts regarding
    French history all over the world." Davutoglu also claimed that the
    timing of the discussion for the bill, Dec 22, was significant since
    it coincidence with the killing of a Turkish diplomat, Yılmaz Colpan,
    in France in a terrorist attack, claimed by an Armenian terrorist
    group that was allegedly murdering Turkish diplomat to avenge the
    deaths of Armenians.

    Calling the French vote "an attempt at abusing history with political
    motives," Parliament Speaker Cemil Cicek urged France to act with
    common sense so that "France does not pay a heavy toll in the future."

    Many other Turkish officials voiced similar comments in the past
    week, but French responses to the warnings suggested that French
    officials interpreted such words as bluffs and did not put much stock
    in the issue.




    From: A. Papazian
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