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Agence France Presse
January 7, 2012 Saturday 6:04 PM GMT
Algeria PM tells Turkey to stop citing French colonisation
ALGIERS, Jan 7 2012
Algerian Prime Minister Ahmed Ouyahia urged Turkey Saturday to stop
trying to make political capital out of France's killing of thousands
of Algerians during the colonial period.
He made the call as Turkey continued to assail Paris ahead of a French
Senate vote on a bill that would make it a crime for anyone to deny
that the killing of Armenians by Ottoman Turks 1915-17 amounted to
genocide.
Turkey has accused France of hypocrisy for its own hand in killings
committed in its former colony, Algeria, in 1945 and during the north
African nation's struggle for independence between 1954 and 1962.
"An estimated 15 percent of the Algerian population was massacred by
the French from 1945 onwards," Erdogan has said. "This is a genocide."
Ouyahia said every country has the right to defend its interests, but
"nobody has the right to make the blood of Algerians their business."
French forces cracked down on a protest in the east Algerian city of
Setif on May 8, 1945, to call for an end to French colonial rule,
leaving 45,000 people dead, according to Algerian historians.
Western researchers put the death toll at between 8,000 and 18,000.
Ouyahia noted that Turkey had been a member of NATO during the war in
Algeria and as such had provided material support to France.
"We say to our (Turkish) friends: Stop making capital out of Algeria's
colonisation," Ouyahia said at a press conference.
The French lower house approved the genocide bill December 22 and the
Senate is expected to vote on it by the end of January.
If it is enacted, anyone denying that the 1915-1917 massacre of
Armenians by Ottoman Turk forces amounted to genocide, could face jail
time.
ad-abh/wat/mlr
From: A. Papazian
January 7, 2012 Saturday 6:04 PM GMT
Algeria PM tells Turkey to stop citing French colonisation
ALGIERS, Jan 7 2012
Algerian Prime Minister Ahmed Ouyahia urged Turkey Saturday to stop
trying to make political capital out of France's killing of thousands
of Algerians during the colonial period.
He made the call as Turkey continued to assail Paris ahead of a French
Senate vote on a bill that would make it a crime for anyone to deny
that the killing of Armenians by Ottoman Turks 1915-17 amounted to
genocide.
Turkey has accused France of hypocrisy for its own hand in killings
committed in its former colony, Algeria, in 1945 and during the north
African nation's struggle for independence between 1954 and 1962.
"An estimated 15 percent of the Algerian population was massacred by
the French from 1945 onwards," Erdogan has said. "This is a genocide."
Ouyahia said every country has the right to defend its interests, but
"nobody has the right to make the blood of Algerians their business."
French forces cracked down on a protest in the east Algerian city of
Setif on May 8, 1945, to call for an end to French colonial rule,
leaving 45,000 people dead, according to Algerian historians.
Western researchers put the death toll at between 8,000 and 18,000.
Ouyahia noted that Turkey had been a member of NATO during the war in
Algeria and as such had provided material support to France.
"We say to our (Turkish) friends: Stop making capital out of Algeria's
colonisation," Ouyahia said at a press conference.
The French lower house approved the genocide bill December 22 and the
Senate is expected to vote on it by the end of January.
If it is enacted, anyone denying that the 1915-1917 massacre of
Armenians by Ottoman Turk forces amounted to genocide, could face jail
time.
ad-abh/wat/mlr
From: A. Papazian