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Ynetnews, Israel
Jan 6 2012
Turkish ambassador to return to Paris
Envoy returns after he was recalled last month, following draft French
law proposing to illegalize denial of Armenian genocide
Turkey's ambassador is returning to Paris after he was recalled for
consultations in response to a draft French law that would make it
illegal to deny that the 1915 mass killing of Armenians by Ottoman
Turks amounted to genocide.
"He's coming back this weekend and will be in the embassy on Monday,"
a Turkish embassy official in Paris told Reuters.
Related stories:
Turkey accuses Sarkozy of breaking promise on genocide bill
Turkish PM apologizes over 1930s killings of Kurds
'Knesset must recognize Armenian genocide'
France's Senate upper house will examine the bill on Jan. 24.
It was overwhelmingly approved last month in the lower house,
prompting Ankara to cancel all political, economic and military
meetings with Paris and summon its ambassador home for consultations -
one step short of a complete recall.
Representatives of Turkish and Armenian groups, and the Turkish and
Armenian ambassadors, are invited to a Senate hearing next week on the
legislation, which its backers want in place before parliament is
suspended at the end of February ahead of an April presidential
election.
Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has described the bill as
"politics based on racism, discrimination and xenophobia".
The French government has stressed that the bill, which mandates a
maximum 45,000-euro fine and a year in jail for offenders, came at the
initiative of a conservative lawmaker and not from President Nicolas
Sarkozy.
France is Turkey's No. 5 export market and the sixth-biggest source of
its imports, with bilateral trade worth $14 billion in the first 10
months of 2011.
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4172194,00.html
Jan 6 2012
Turkish ambassador to return to Paris
Envoy returns after he was recalled last month, following draft French
law proposing to illegalize denial of Armenian genocide
Turkey's ambassador is returning to Paris after he was recalled for
consultations in response to a draft French law that would make it
illegal to deny that the 1915 mass killing of Armenians by Ottoman
Turks amounted to genocide.
"He's coming back this weekend and will be in the embassy on Monday,"
a Turkish embassy official in Paris told Reuters.
Related stories:
Turkey accuses Sarkozy of breaking promise on genocide bill
Turkish PM apologizes over 1930s killings of Kurds
'Knesset must recognize Armenian genocide'
France's Senate upper house will examine the bill on Jan. 24.
It was overwhelmingly approved last month in the lower house,
prompting Ankara to cancel all political, economic and military
meetings with Paris and summon its ambassador home for consultations -
one step short of a complete recall.
Representatives of Turkish and Armenian groups, and the Turkish and
Armenian ambassadors, are invited to a Senate hearing next week on the
legislation, which its backers want in place before parliament is
suspended at the end of February ahead of an April presidential
election.
Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has described the bill as
"politics based on racism, discrimination and xenophobia".
The French government has stressed that the bill, which mandates a
maximum 45,000-euro fine and a year in jail for offenders, came at the
initiative of a conservative lawmaker and not from President Nicolas
Sarkozy.
France is Turkey's No. 5 export market and the sixth-biggest source of
its imports, with bilateral trade worth $14 billion in the first 10
months of 2011.
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4172194,00.html