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TURKEY'S ERDOGAN PRAISES MOVE TO SCRAP GENOCIDE LAW
EuroNews
Jan 31 2012
Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has welcomed a move to
overturn a French law that makes it illegal to deny the mass killings
of Armenians by Ottoman Turks as genocide.
A group of senators have asked France's constitutional court to quash
the legislation, which sparked anger in Turkey.
"I hope the constitutional council will do what is necessary," said
Erdogan, while Turkish President Abdullah Gul added that he was "not
expecting the French from the very beginning to let their country be
overshadowed" by the law.
France already officially recognises the killings as a genocide. The
new law would go further by punishing anyone who denies this with up
to a year in jail and a fine of 45,000 euros ($57,000).
Armenians say up to 1.5 million of their ancestors died in 1915 and
1916 at the hands of Turkey's former Ottoman Empire.
Turkey disputes the figure, arguing that 500,000 died, and denies
this was genocide.
It says the deaths were due to fighting and starvation during World
War I.
EuroNews
Jan 31 2012
Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has welcomed a move to
overturn a French law that makes it illegal to deny the mass killings
of Armenians by Ottoman Turks as genocide.
A group of senators have asked France's constitutional court to quash
the legislation, which sparked anger in Turkey.
"I hope the constitutional council will do what is necessary," said
Erdogan, while Turkish President Abdullah Gul added that he was "not
expecting the French from the very beginning to let their country be
overshadowed" by the law.
France already officially recognises the killings as a genocide. The
new law would go further by punishing anyone who denies this with up
to a year in jail and a fine of 45,000 euros ($57,000).
Armenians say up to 1.5 million of their ancestors died in 1915 and
1916 at the hands of Turkey's former Ottoman Empire.
Turkey disputes the figure, arguing that 500,000 died, and denies
this was genocide.
It says the deaths were due to fighting and starvation during World
War I.