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FRANCE URGED FOR COMMON SENSE
Hurriyet Daily News
Jan 20 2012
Turkey
Turkey's president and Parliament urged the French Senate "to heed the
common sense" during next week's discussion of a draft law penalizing
the denial of Armenian allegations of genocide.
"[The adoption of the bill] will not only overshadow bilateral ties
but will deal them a blow," President Abdullah Gul told reporters in
the central Anatolian town of Aksaray yesterday. The French Senate will
discuss the bill Jan. 23 after its Constitutional Committee evaluated
the proposed bill as incompatible with the French Constitution. The
committee's evaluation was welcomed by Turkey who called on French
senators to drop it from the Senate agenda.
However, France's Ambassador to Turkey Laurent Bili drew the attention
to the fact that the situation at the General Assembly could be a
little different as senators would defend the demands and the rights
of their electorates, in an interview with the private station Kanal
D. "[The committee's evaluation] does not mean that the bill will
not be passed [Jan. 23]," he said.
The bill would later be taken to the French Constitutional Court if
the Senate would vote in favor of it, Bili said, calling on the Turkish
government not to overreact in this case. "What is happening in France
[regarding this draft law] does befit neither French democracy nor
France as the leading country of the EU," he said, expressing his hopes
that French senators will not endorse a draft law which was found
as inadmissible by the committee. A similar call came from Turkish
Parliament's Foreign Affairs Committee yesterday through a declaration.
"We wish that the common sense reflected by the committee will be
shared by the Senate's General Assembly as well," it read, adding that
the nature of this draft law was incompatible with universal values.
Turkey's position is leaving the examination of the past's contested
issues to the hands of independent historians and Turkey will have to
take retaliatory measures against France if Senate adopts the draft,
the statement said.
Hurriyet Daily News
Jan 20 2012
Turkey
Turkey's president and Parliament urged the French Senate "to heed the
common sense" during next week's discussion of a draft law penalizing
the denial of Armenian allegations of genocide.
"[The adoption of the bill] will not only overshadow bilateral ties
but will deal them a blow," President Abdullah Gul told reporters in
the central Anatolian town of Aksaray yesterday. The French Senate will
discuss the bill Jan. 23 after its Constitutional Committee evaluated
the proposed bill as incompatible with the French Constitution. The
committee's evaluation was welcomed by Turkey who called on French
senators to drop it from the Senate agenda.
However, France's Ambassador to Turkey Laurent Bili drew the attention
to the fact that the situation at the General Assembly could be a
little different as senators would defend the demands and the rights
of their electorates, in an interview with the private station Kanal
D. "[The committee's evaluation] does not mean that the bill will
not be passed [Jan. 23]," he said.
The bill would later be taken to the French Constitutional Court if
the Senate would vote in favor of it, Bili said, calling on the Turkish
government not to overreact in this case. "What is happening in France
[regarding this draft law] does befit neither French democracy nor
France as the leading country of the EU," he said, expressing his hopes
that French senators will not endorse a draft law which was found
as inadmissible by the committee. A similar call came from Turkish
Parliament's Foreign Affairs Committee yesterday through a declaration.
"We wish that the common sense reflected by the committee will be
shared by the Senate's General Assembly as well," it read, adding that
the nature of this draft law was incompatible with universal values.
Turkey's position is leaving the examination of the past's contested
issues to the hands of independent historians and Turkey will have to
take retaliatory measures against France if Senate adopts the draft,
the statement said.