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TURKEY-FRANCE: TURKISH AMBASSADOR BACK IN PARIS
ANSAmed - Italy
January 9, 2012 Monday 12:38 PM CET
(ANSAmed) The Turkish ambassador to France, Tahsin Burcuoglu, has
returned to Paris after consultations over French legislation that
would outlaw denial of the Armenian genocide, an official said Sunday
as reported by Anatolia news agency. "The ambassador has finished
the consultations for which he was recalled and returned to France
on Saturday," Turkish foreign ministry spokesman Selcuk Unal said.
Burcuoglu was recalled to Ankara after the French parliament's lower
house approved a bill criminalising denial of the genocide and will
now focus on preventing the bill from being approved by the Senate,
Unal said. The bill was entered last week onto the agenda of the
left-dominated Senate and is expected to win passage because it is
backed by both sides of the aisle. Conservative French President
Nicolas Sarkozy has championed the legislation, drawing allegations
that he is seeking to woo the half a million French of Armenian descent
ahead of April elections. French lawmakers voted on December 22 to
jail and fine anyone in France who denies that the 1915 killings of
Armenians under the Ottoman Empire amounted to genocide, prompting
Turkey to suspend political and military cooperation with Paris.
During World War I many Armenians died in Ottoman Turkey. Armenia
says 1.5 million were killed in a genocide, a term Turkey rejects,
saying instead that around 500,000 died in fighting after Armenians
sided with Russian invaders. Turkey has threatened a new round of
retaliation if the Senate passes the bill.
ANSAmed - Italy
January 9, 2012 Monday 12:38 PM CET
(ANSAmed) The Turkish ambassador to France, Tahsin Burcuoglu, has
returned to Paris after consultations over French legislation that
would outlaw denial of the Armenian genocide, an official said Sunday
as reported by Anatolia news agency. "The ambassador has finished
the consultations for which he was recalled and returned to France
on Saturday," Turkish foreign ministry spokesman Selcuk Unal said.
Burcuoglu was recalled to Ankara after the French parliament's lower
house approved a bill criminalising denial of the genocide and will
now focus on preventing the bill from being approved by the Senate,
Unal said. The bill was entered last week onto the agenda of the
left-dominated Senate and is expected to win passage because it is
backed by both sides of the aisle. Conservative French President
Nicolas Sarkozy has championed the legislation, drawing allegations
that he is seeking to woo the half a million French of Armenian descent
ahead of April elections. French lawmakers voted on December 22 to
jail and fine anyone in France who denies that the 1915 killings of
Armenians under the Ottoman Empire amounted to genocide, prompting
Turkey to suspend political and military cooperation with Paris.
During World War I many Armenians died in Ottoman Turkey. Armenia
says 1.5 million were killed in a genocide, a term Turkey rejects,
saying instead that around 500,000 died in fighting after Armenians
sided with Russian invaders. Turkey has threatened a new round of
retaliation if the Senate passes the bill.