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TURKEY FREEZES ALL POLITICAL RELATIONS WITH FRANCE OVER GENOCIDE ROW
guardian.co.uk
Thursday 22 December 2011 19.26 GMT
Recep Tayyip Erdogan recalls ambassador after Paris's decision to
prosecute people who deny killing of Armenians was genocide
Turkey's prime minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, said the French
decision, to prosecute people denying the killing of Armenians was
genocide, amounted to Islamophobia. Photograph: Burhan Ozbilici/AP
Turkey has frozen relations with France, recalling its ambassador and
suspending all economic, political and military meetings in response to
French MPs' approval of a law that would make it a crime to deny that
the mass killing of Armenians in 1915 by Ottoman Turks was genocide.
The furious Turkish reaction to Paris's parliamentary vote marked an
unprecedented low between the Nato partners.
The Turkish prime minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, cancelled permission
for French military planes to land and warships to dock in Turkey,
annulled all joint military exercises, recalled the Turkish ambassador
to France for consultations and said he would decide case by case
whether to let the French military use Turkish airspace.
He said this was just the start and "gradually" but "decisively"
other retaliation measures would be taken against France. He warned
of heavy diplomatic "wounds" that would be "difficult to heal".
A majority of the 50 MPs present in France's lower chamber approved
the bill which would make denying any genocide - but implicitly
the Armenian genocide - a criminal offence punishable by a one-year
prison sentence and a fine of ~@45,000 (£37,500). The bill was put
forward by an MP from Sarkozy's rightwing UMP party, but the issue
was supported by socialists.
"This is politics based on racism, discrimination and xenophobia. This
is using Turkophobia and Islamophobia to gain votes, it raises concerns
regarding these issues not only in France but all over Europe," Erdogan
said, accusing the French president, Nicolas Sarkozy, of deliberately
courting the large Armenian-French vote ahead of next year's election.
The French foreign minister Alain Juppe said he didn't want "our
Turkish friends" to "overreact". Earlier, trying to smooth the row
with Turkey, he dismissed the bill as "useless and counterproductive".
He said Turkey, "a proud nation", should work on its issues of history
and memory, but threatening French criminal sanctions was not the
right way to make them do it.
Under Sarkozy, who opposes Turkish entry to the European Union,
relations between Paris and Ankara have been difficult. But the Nato
allies had been working together on key issues such as the Syria
uprising. Erdogan said Turkey was now "suspending all kinds of
political consultations with France".
A Turkish official indicated the freeze would not affect the country's
membership of Nato, and that the withdrawal of military co-operation
would be at a bilateral level.
Armenia, backed by many historians and parliaments, says about 1.5
million Christian Armenians were killed in what is now eastern Turkey
during the first world war in a deliberate policy of genocide ordered
by the Ottoman government. Ankara denies the killings constitute
genocide and says many Muslim Turks and Kurds were also put to death
as Russian troops invaded eastern Anatolia, often aided by Armenian
militias.
The French bill criminalising genocide denial must now be put to the
French senate for debate next year.
guardian.co.uk
Thursday 22 December 2011 19.26 GMT
Recep Tayyip Erdogan recalls ambassador after Paris's decision to
prosecute people who deny killing of Armenians was genocide
Turkey's prime minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, said the French
decision, to prosecute people denying the killing of Armenians was
genocide, amounted to Islamophobia. Photograph: Burhan Ozbilici/AP
Turkey has frozen relations with France, recalling its ambassador and
suspending all economic, political and military meetings in response to
French MPs' approval of a law that would make it a crime to deny that
the mass killing of Armenians in 1915 by Ottoman Turks was genocide.
The furious Turkish reaction to Paris's parliamentary vote marked an
unprecedented low between the Nato partners.
The Turkish prime minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, cancelled permission
for French military planes to land and warships to dock in Turkey,
annulled all joint military exercises, recalled the Turkish ambassador
to France for consultations and said he would decide case by case
whether to let the French military use Turkish airspace.
He said this was just the start and "gradually" but "decisively"
other retaliation measures would be taken against France. He warned
of heavy diplomatic "wounds" that would be "difficult to heal".
A majority of the 50 MPs present in France's lower chamber approved
the bill which would make denying any genocide - but implicitly
the Armenian genocide - a criminal offence punishable by a one-year
prison sentence and a fine of ~@45,000 (£37,500). The bill was put
forward by an MP from Sarkozy's rightwing UMP party, but the issue
was supported by socialists.
"This is politics based on racism, discrimination and xenophobia. This
is using Turkophobia and Islamophobia to gain votes, it raises concerns
regarding these issues not only in France but all over Europe," Erdogan
said, accusing the French president, Nicolas Sarkozy, of deliberately
courting the large Armenian-French vote ahead of next year's election.
The French foreign minister Alain Juppe said he didn't want "our
Turkish friends" to "overreact". Earlier, trying to smooth the row
with Turkey, he dismissed the bill as "useless and counterproductive".
He said Turkey, "a proud nation", should work on its issues of history
and memory, but threatening French criminal sanctions was not the
right way to make them do it.
Under Sarkozy, who opposes Turkish entry to the European Union,
relations between Paris and Ankara have been difficult. But the Nato
allies had been working together on key issues such as the Syria
uprising. Erdogan said Turkey was now "suspending all kinds of
political consultations with France".
A Turkish official indicated the freeze would not affect the country's
membership of Nato, and that the withdrawal of military co-operation
would be at a bilateral level.
Armenia, backed by many historians and parliaments, says about 1.5
million Christian Armenians were killed in what is now eastern Turkey
during the first world war in a deliberate policy of genocide ordered
by the Ottoman government. Ankara denies the killings constitute
genocide and says many Muslim Turks and Kurds were also put to death
as Russian troops invaded eastern Anatolia, often aided by Armenian
militias.
The French bill criminalising genocide denial must now be put to the
French senate for debate next year.