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US URGES FRANCE, TURKEY TO CALM GENOCIDE ROW
Agence France Presse
Dec 22 2011
WASHINGTON - The United States hopes France and Turkey can de-escalate
an angry row over a French vote to outlaw denial of the Armenian
genocide, a senior US diplomat said Thursday.
"We obviously want to see good relations between France and Turkey,
we hope they can resolve differences between them, they're both
stalwart NATO allies and partners," said the official, on condition
of anonymity.
He was speaking as Turkey reacted with fury to a vote by French
lawmakers to outlaw denial of the Armenian genocide, immediately
cutting military ties and warning of "irreparable damage" to relations.
In April President Barack Obama marked the 96th anniversary of the
massacre of Armenians under the Ottoman Empire and called on Ankara
to fully acknowledge the killings, while stopping short of calling
it a genocide, even though he used that term during his 2008 election
campaign.
State Department spokesman Mark Toner said simply: "We continue to
support normalization of relations between Turkey and Armenia."
Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan ordered home Ankara's ambassador
to Paris on Thursday, banned political visits between the two NATO
allies and said Turkey will boycott a joint economic committee meeting
in Paris in January.
Erdogan accused France's President Nicolas Sarkozy of pandering to
domestic voters, hundreds of thousands of whom are of Armenian descent,
and warned that these measures were the first in an escalating scale
of sanctions.
Agence France Presse
Dec 22 2011
WASHINGTON - The United States hopes France and Turkey can de-escalate
an angry row over a French vote to outlaw denial of the Armenian
genocide, a senior US diplomat said Thursday.
"We obviously want to see good relations between France and Turkey,
we hope they can resolve differences between them, they're both
stalwart NATO allies and partners," said the official, on condition
of anonymity.
He was speaking as Turkey reacted with fury to a vote by French
lawmakers to outlaw denial of the Armenian genocide, immediately
cutting military ties and warning of "irreparable damage" to relations.
In April President Barack Obama marked the 96th anniversary of the
massacre of Armenians under the Ottoman Empire and called on Ankara
to fully acknowledge the killings, while stopping short of calling
it a genocide, even though he used that term during his 2008 election
campaign.
State Department spokesman Mark Toner said simply: "We continue to
support normalization of relations between Turkey and Armenia."
Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan ordered home Ankara's ambassador
to Paris on Thursday, banned political visits between the two NATO
allies and said Turkey will boycott a joint economic committee meeting
in Paris in January.
Erdogan accused France's President Nicolas Sarkozy of pandering to
domestic voters, hundreds of thousands of whom are of Armenian descent,
and warned that these measures were the first in an escalating scale
of sanctions.