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BAKU: Turkey Says France Made Unforgivable Mistake

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  • BAKU: Turkey Says France Made Unforgivable Mistake

    TURKEY SAYS FRANCE MADE UNFORGIVABLE MISTAKE

    Trend
    Dec 28 2011
    Azerbaijan

    28 December 2011, 04:47 (GMT+04:00) Turkish president has said
    France made an unforgivable mistake by supporting a vote in the
    French Parliament last week making it a crime to deny the WWI-era
    mass killings of Armenians was a genocide, Today's Zaman reported.

    In an interview with a Turkish TV network on Tuesday, Abdullah Gul
    said French President Nicolas Sarkozy took unbelievable steps for
    what he said "small [political] calculations," referring to impending
    elections in France in April.

    "I hope they will turn back from their mistakes," Gul stressed.

    Turkey vehemently rejects the term "genocide" for the World War I
    era-mass killings of Armenians, saying the issue should be left to
    historians. It contends that France is trampling freedom of expression
    and that Sarkozy is on a vote-getting mission before April presidential
    elections.

    An estimated 500,000 Armenians live in France and many have pressed
    to raise the legal statute regarding the massacres to the same level
    as the Holocaust by punishing denial of genocide.

    France formally recognized the killings as genocide in 2001, but
    provided no penalty for anyone denying that. The bill sets a punishment
    of up to one year in prison and a fine of 45,000 euro ($59,000) for
    those who deny or "outrageously minimize" the killings by Ottoman
    Turks, putting such action on a par with denial of the Holocaust.

    Noting that Turkish-French relations are very deep, Gul said the bill
    criminalizes speaking and writing about something that is different
    from state's official position. He recalled Turkey's reform process in
    which he said as a country "we freed ourselves from these bans." He
    said people are being punished for their views that is different
    from state position in a country where he said is known to be "land
    of freedoms."

    Turkey, a NATO member, is a strategic ally of France and valued
    trading partner, and the moves diminish ties at a particularly crucial
    time. Paris and Ankara are both deeply involved in international
    issues from the uprising in Syria to Afghanistan.

    Gul said what makes him angry is that France says "I will punish
    those who believe otherwise."

    "A history professor will not be able to say that this is the truth
    [about 1915 events]," the president said, adding that cheap politics
    brings countries to an "unexpected point."

    Gul also complained of a situation in Turkey's neighborhood and
    recalled that he wrote a letter to his Armenian counterpart earlier
    and had talks with Armenia and Azerbaijan to bury hostilities. He
    said today's situation in the region, where Azerbaijan and Armenia
    are officially at war and there are no diplomatic or commercial
    relations between Turkey and Armenia, are not in favor of any these
    three countries.

    He said Turkey is the most powerful country in the region and must
    see countries in its vicinity as its hinterland. He added that Turkey
    must build cultural, economic and political ties with its neighbor
    and acknowledged that efforts in this regard slowed down recently. Gul
    also stated that Turkey is not competing with France in these areas.

    Turkey and Armenia signed twin protocols in 2009 to normalize relations
    and establish diplomatic ties but both countries failed to ratify
    the documents in the parliaments. Turkey pegged the ratification
    of the protocols to an Armenian-initiated breakthrough in the
    Nagorno-Karabakh dispute between Armenia and Azerbaijan and Armenia
    suspended the process after accusing Turkey of failing to live up to
    its committments.

    Speaking about the unrest in the Middle East, Gul said what Turkey
    wants amid this political turmoil is to see people of these nations
    happy. Stressing that people cannot be happy under repressive regimes,
    warning of risks in the Arab Spring.

    Turkish president said demands for change will go easily if rulers
    lead the change but said these changes are made after people's revolt
    or foreign intervention which has huge costs.

    The president also acknowledged that he always distanced himself
    from the Syrian regime and believed that Turkey's reconciliation with
    Syria may transform the country.

    WikiLeaks cables also showed that Gul frequently expressed his
    uneasiness about the Syrian regime and Assad family.

    Gul said Turkey believed that the Assad regime may change the country
    but he said Syrian President Bashar Assad may not be powerful in the
    Baath party.

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