Tweet
TURKEY ACCUSES FRANCE OF GENOCIDE AFTER ARMENIAN BILL
Al-Masry Al-Youm
http://www.almasryalyoum.com/en/node/565096
Dec 23 2011
Egypt
ISTANBUL - Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan accused France
of genocide in Algeria in the 1940s and 50s, in his latest response
to a French parliament vote to make it a crime to deny that the mass
killings of Armenians in Ottoman Turkey was genocide.
Erdogan also said President Nicolas Sarkozy's father might have direct
knowledge about French "massacres" in Algeria.
"In Algeria from 1945, an estimated 15 percent of the population
was massacred by the French. This is a genocide," Erdogan said on
live television.
"If the French President Mr. Sarkozy doesn't know about this genocide
he should go and ask his father, Paul Sarkozy.
"His father served in the French Legion in Algeria in the 1940s. I
am sure he would have lots to tell his son about the French massacres
in Algeria," the Turkish premier said.
Parliamentarians in France's lower house of parliament voted
overwhelmingly in favor of a draft law outlawing genocide denial
Thursday, which the Senate will debate next year.
If passed, the bill would make it illegal to deny the 1915 mass killing
of Armenians by Ottoman Turks amounted to genocide. The issue has
caused outrage in Turkey, which argues killings took place on all
sides during a fierce partisan conflict.
Erdogan condemned the bill shortly after the vote, recalled Ankara's
ambassador to France for consultations and canceled all joint economic,
political and military meetings. Friday, he vowed to take more steps.
"We will take gradual measures as long as the current [French]
attitude is maintained," he said, without elaborating.
"The vote in the French parliament has shown how dangerous racism,
discrimination and Islamophobia have become in France and Europe."
Although nearly a century has passed since the killings in the middle
of World War I, successive Turkish governments and the vast majority
of Turks feel the charge of Armenian genocide is an insult to their
nation.
Al-Masry Al-Youm
http://www.almasryalyoum.com/en/node/565096
Dec 23 2011
Egypt
ISTANBUL - Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan accused France
of genocide in Algeria in the 1940s and 50s, in his latest response
to a French parliament vote to make it a crime to deny that the mass
killings of Armenians in Ottoman Turkey was genocide.
Erdogan also said President Nicolas Sarkozy's father might have direct
knowledge about French "massacres" in Algeria.
"In Algeria from 1945, an estimated 15 percent of the population
was massacred by the French. This is a genocide," Erdogan said on
live television.
"If the French President Mr. Sarkozy doesn't know about this genocide
he should go and ask his father, Paul Sarkozy.
"His father served in the French Legion in Algeria in the 1940s. I
am sure he would have lots to tell his son about the French massacres
in Algeria," the Turkish premier said.
Parliamentarians in France's lower house of parliament voted
overwhelmingly in favor of a draft law outlawing genocide denial
Thursday, which the Senate will debate next year.
If passed, the bill would make it illegal to deny the 1915 mass killing
of Armenians by Ottoman Turks amounted to genocide. The issue has
caused outrage in Turkey, which argues killings took place on all
sides during a fierce partisan conflict.
Erdogan condemned the bill shortly after the vote, recalled Ankara's
ambassador to France for consultations and canceled all joint economic,
political and military meetings. Friday, he vowed to take more steps.
"We will take gradual measures as long as the current [French]
attitude is maintained," he said, without elaborating.
"The vote in the French parliament has shown how dangerous racism,
discrimination and Islamophobia have become in France and Europe."
Although nearly a century has passed since the killings in the middle
of World War I, successive Turkish governments and the vast majority
of Turks feel the charge of Armenian genocide is an insult to their
nation.