ANKARA'S GENOCIDE MEMORIAL THREAT ESCALATES FRENCH ROW
by Alexander Christie-Miller
The Times
January 11, 2012 Wednesday
Edition 1; National Edition
Istanbul Turkey has threatened to build a monument to "Algerian
genocide" outside the French Embassy in Ankara in the latest
escalation in a bitter row between the Nato allies (Alexander
Christie-Miller writes).
Last month, the National Assembly in Paris passed a law making it an
offence to deny that massacres of Armenians during the Ottoman era
were genocide, which angered Turkey and prompted it to recall its
ambassador to France. Officials in Ankara now say they will erect a
statue in memory of Algerians killed during the colonial era if the
law passes the French Senate this month. Plans have also been made to
change the name of the city's "Paris Street" to "Algeria Street" and
rename "Degol Street" [a Turkish spelling of Charles de Gaulle] after
"an Algerian national hero".
About one million Algerians are believed to have died in the war of
independence against France between 1954 and 1962. Algiers has reacted
angrily to its history being drawn into the dispute, with President
Ouyahia calling on Turkey to stop "making capital out of Algeria's
colonisation".
From: A. Papazian
by Alexander Christie-Miller
The Times
January 11, 2012 Wednesday
Edition 1; National Edition
Istanbul Turkey has threatened to build a monument to "Algerian
genocide" outside the French Embassy in Ankara in the latest
escalation in a bitter row between the Nato allies (Alexander
Christie-Miller writes).
Last month, the National Assembly in Paris passed a law making it an
offence to deny that massacres of Armenians during the Ottoman era
were genocide, which angered Turkey and prompted it to recall its
ambassador to France. Officials in Ankara now say they will erect a
statue in memory of Algerians killed during the colonial era if the
law passes the French Senate this month. Plans have also been made to
change the name of the city's "Paris Street" to "Algeria Street" and
rename "Degol Street" [a Turkish spelling of Charles de Gaulle] after
"an Algerian national hero".
About one million Algerians are believed to have died in the war of
independence against France between 1954 and 1962. Algiers has reacted
angrily to its history being drawn into the dispute, with President
Ouyahia calling on Turkey to stop "making capital out of Algeria's
colonisation".
From: A. Papazian