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Turkey And France In Diplomatic Row Over Armenian Genocide Bill

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  • Turkey And France In Diplomatic Row Over Armenian Genocide Bill

    TURKEY AND FRANCE IN DIPLOMATIC ROW OVER ARMENIAN GENOCIDE BILL

    Daily Telegraph
    22 Dec 2011
    UK

    Turkey halted military co-operation with France and suspended political
    visits in retaliation for a French bill making it a criminal offence to
    deny the 1915 mass killings of Armenians by Ottoman Turks was genocide.

    About 3,000 French nationals of Turkish origin demonstrated peacefully
    ahead of the vote Photo: AFP/GETTYBy Henry Samuel, Paris

    Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the Turkish prime minister, said the vote,
    which received cross-party support in France's National Assembly -
    its lower house - would open "very grave and irreparable wounds"
    in bilateral relations.

    Turkey, a Nato member, is a key ally of France, and the pair have
    worked closely together on tackling crises from Syria to Afghanistan.

    Ankara had been piling on pressure for the law to be scrapped in
    recent days, threatening grave consequences.

    Mr Erdogan said he was recalling his ambassador in Paris to Ankara
    for consultations.

    "As of now, we are cancelling bilateral level political, economic
    and military activities," he said. "We are suspending all kinds
    of political consultations with France" and "bilateral military
    co-operation, joint manoeuvres are cancelled as of now."

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    Turkey categorically rejects the term "genocide" to describe the
    deaths of up to 1.5 million Christian Armenians in the First World
    War in what is now eastern Turkey. Many Armenians and historians say
    that the Ottoman government pursued a deliberate policy of genocide.

    But the vast majority of Turks and their politicians take the term of
    genocide as an insult to their nation, arguing that there was heavy
    loss of life on both sides during fighting.

    The bill - which still must be approved by the French Senate - was
    put forward by members of President Nicolas Sarkozy's ruling party,
    and while the government insists it did not propose it, the bill
    needed Mr Sarkozy's tacit consent.

    Many French legislators insist the law - which will impose a 45,000
    euro (£37,000) fine and a one-year jail term on genocide deniers -
    is an overdue measure to protect what is a "historical fact".

    But it has split the French Right. Alain Juppe, the French foreign
    minister, slammed the vote as "useless and counterproductive".

    "It's counterproductive as that's not the way to make the Turks move,"
    he said. "The Turks are a proud people."

    Relations between Mr Sarkozy and Turkey were long frosty due to his
    strong opposition to its entry into the European Union, but ties had
    thawed since Mr Juppe's arrival at the foreign ministry.

    The minister said the vote went against a growing consensus that
    "the duty to remember was better done by historians than MPs".

    That said, he added: "Turkey should refrain from exerting undue
    pressure. That's enough".

    France passed a law recognising the killing of Armenians as genocide
    in 2001. Turkey sought to exert pressure back then but it had little
    effect on trade.

    The French lower house first passed a bill criminalising the denial
    of an Armenian genocide in 2006, but it was rejected by the Senate
    in May this year.

    The new bill was less specific, partly in a bid to appease the Turks,
    outlawing the denial of any genocide.

    It could theoretically be completed before parliament is suspended at
    the end of February ahead of presidential and parliamentary elections.

    Ankara considers the bill, blatant electioneering by both French
    conservatives and opposition Socialists - an attempt to win the votes
    of 500,000 ethnic Armenians in France in next year's elections.

    It also claims the measure limits freedom of speech.

    The French have questioned whether Turkey could impose unilateral
    trade sanctions as a member of the World Trade Organisation.

    France, which only recently recognised its role in wartime
    collaboration with the Nazis, had been pushing Turkey to own up to
    its history.

    France should instead revisit its role in the 1994 Rwandan genocide
    and its colonial past in North Africa, Turkish officials responded.


    From: Baghdasarian
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