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Turkish anger rises as France takes first step to criminalise denial

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  • Turkish anger rises as France takes first step to criminalise denial

    The Irish Times
    December 23, 2011 Friday


    Turkish anger rises as France takes first step to criminalise denial
    of Armenian genocide


    PARIS France took the first step yesterday to criminalising the denial
    of genocide, including the 1915 mass killing of Armenians by Ottoman
    Turks, prompting Ankara to recall its ambassador for consultations.

    Tension has risen over the draft law put forward by members of
    President Nicolas Sarkozy s ruling party, with Turkish prime minister
    Tayyip Erdogan warning there would be grave political and economic
    consequences if the Bill passed. Mr Erdogan said the draft law was
    politics based on racism, discrimination, xenophobia .

    This is using Turkophobia and Islamophobia to gain votes, and it
    raises concerns regarding these issues not only in France but all
    Europe, he told a news conference, adding that Turkey could not remain
    silent in the face of this .

    Turkish officials said its ambassador in Paris had been recalled for
    consultations after members of France s National Assembly the lower
    house of parliament voted overwhelmingly in favour of the Bill. It
    will now be debated next year in the Senate.

    A French diplomatic source said Paris regretted the move and
    considered fellow Nato member Turkey an important partner.

    I don t understand why France wants to censor my freedom of
    expression, Yildiz Hamza, president of the Montargis association that
    represents 700 Turkish families in France, said outside the National
    Assembly.

    Earlier, about 3,000 French nationals of Turkish origin demonstrated
    peacefully outside the parliament ahead of the vote, which came 32
    years to the day since a Turkish diplomat was assassinated by Armenian
    militants in central Paris.

    The authorities in Yerevan welcomed the vote, Armenia s foreign
    minister Edward Nalbandian saying: By adopting this Bill reconfirmed
    that crimes against humanity do not have a period of prescription and
    their denial must be absolutely condemned .

    France passed a law recognising the killing of Armenians as genocide
    in 2001. 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 latest draft law was made more general to outlaw the denial of any
    genocide, partly in the hope of appeasing the Turks.

    It could still face a long passage into law, though its backers want
    to see it completed before parliament is suspended at the end of
    February ahead of elections in the second quarter.

    National Assembly speaker Bernard Accoyer said on Wednesday he doubted
    the Bill would pass by the end of the current parliament, as the
    government had not made the Bill priority legislation.

    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.

    Successive Turkish governments and the vast majority of Turks feel the
    charge of genocide is an insult to their nation. Ankara argues that
    there was heavy loss of life on both sides during fighting in the
    area.

    The French government has stressed it did not initiate the Bill, which
    mandates a EUR 45,000 fine and a year in jail for offenders, and says
    Turkey cannot impose unilateral trade sanctions.

    Faced with Sarkozy s open hostility to Turkey s stagnant bid to join
    the European Union, and buoyed by a fast-growing economy, Ankara has
    little to lose by picking a political fight with Paris.

    With Turkey taking an increasingly influential role in the Arab world
    and Middle East, especially Syria, Iran and Libya, France could
    experience some diplomatic discomfort, and French firms could lose out
    on lucrative Turkish contracts.

    France is Turkey s fifth-biggest export market and the sixth biggest
    source of its imports.

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