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MIXED REACTIONS TO PROPOSED ECONOMIC SANCTIONS AGAINST FRANCE
Today's Zaman
Jan 25 2012
Turkey
Turks are infuriated over approval of a bill that criminalizes denying
that the mass killings of Armenians at the hands of Ottomans in the
World War I-era almost a century ago was genocide and are similarly
angry at politicians in the French parliament.
Both the ruling and opposition parties are angry, and they rushed to
condemn France for the bill, promising to make them pay for it. But
it is yet unknown what punitive steps will be taken, or if those
measures will be supported by businesses.
The idea of putting economic sanctions in place -- such as denying
French companies entry to public tenders, stopping purchases of
French aircraft and automobiles, or even an extensive boycott of
French products -- was given the cold shoulder by Turkish Exporters'
Assembly (TÄ°M) President Mehmet BuyukekÅ~_i on Wednesday. Some others
-- including Turkish Union of Chambers and Commodity Exchanges (TOBB)
President Rifat Hisarcıklıoglu and Turkish Union of Agricultural
Chambers (TZOB) President Å~^emsi Bayraktar -- earlier supported
sanctions against French companies and products.
"Now what? Are we going to tell France that we will not sell our
products to them any longer? On the contrary, we should not remove
all the bridges [between us] at once. For us, Turkish businessmen
should remain calmer [than politicians]. As exporters, we should play
our role to improve bilateral relations between Turkey and France,"
BuyukekÅ~_i said at a press conference in Ä°stanbul. France is Turkey's
fifth largest exports market -- with a total exports volume of $6.9
billion in 2011 -- after Germany, Iraq, the United Kingdom and Italy,
in descending order. Trade between Turkey and France is slightly
imbalanced to benefit France; the total value of goods sold by France
to Turkey in 2011 was $8.6 billion. But it goes without saying that
an interruption of trade between the two countries will affect Turkey
more than France, given that Turkish exports to France accounts for
5 percent of Turkey's exports, whereas Turkey provides less than 1
percent of France's overseas imports. Likewise, France's exports to
Turkey are just 1.5 percent of the total goods exported by France.
However, a mass boycott -- particularly in the fields of banking,
energy, automobiles, retail, cosmetics and pharmaceuticals, where
many French companies are active in Turkey -- might affect sales of
individual businesses and force them to pay much more for advertising.
The French parliament's upper house, or the Senate, approved the bill
late Monday, complicating an already-delicate relationship with the
rising power. Officials in President Nicolas Sarkozy's government,
however, insisted the vote did not directly target Turkey. Sarkozy,
who personally supported the bill, plans to sign the measure into
law within the 15-day period allotted after the passage of a bill,
which took place on Monday, an official from France's presidential
Elysee Palace, told The Associated Press on Tuesday.
Turkey responds to genocide allegations by saying that the 1915
killings of Armenians were not ordered by the central Ottoman
administration; rather, they were the work of individuals who were
angered by Armenian gangs' killings of Muslim civilians, in what is
today eastern Turkey, while the territory was under the threat of a
Russian invasion. In response to an earlier approval of the bill by
the French parliament's lower house, the Turkish government suspended
military, economic and political ties with Paris and briefly recalled
its ambassador last month.
Controversial public tender In a related story, Gemalto N.V., an
Amsterdam-based digital security firm whose main shareholder is the
French sovereign wealth fund Fonds Stratégique d'Investissement (FSI),
won a key 7.5 million euro public tender to provide the electronic
chips used in Turkish passports after the first approval of the
genocide bill by the French parliament. The agreement is expected
to be signed with Gemalto soon. But some speculate that the Turkish
government might move to overturn the tender due to the recent tension
with France.
The FSI was created to enhance equity and to help stabilize French
business. It is 49 percent owned by the French government and the
rest is owned by the Caisse des Depots et Consignations, a French
financial organization controlled by the very French parliament whose
upper house, despite warnings from Turkey, gave final approval for
the genocide denial bill.
Today's Zaman
Jan 25 2012
Turkey
Turks are infuriated over approval of a bill that criminalizes denying
that the mass killings of Armenians at the hands of Ottomans in the
World War I-era almost a century ago was genocide and are similarly
angry at politicians in the French parliament.
Both the ruling and opposition parties are angry, and they rushed to
condemn France for the bill, promising to make them pay for it. But
it is yet unknown what punitive steps will be taken, or if those
measures will be supported by businesses.
The idea of putting economic sanctions in place -- such as denying
French companies entry to public tenders, stopping purchases of
French aircraft and automobiles, or even an extensive boycott of
French products -- was given the cold shoulder by Turkish Exporters'
Assembly (TÄ°M) President Mehmet BuyukekÅ~_i on Wednesday. Some others
-- including Turkish Union of Chambers and Commodity Exchanges (TOBB)
President Rifat Hisarcıklıoglu and Turkish Union of Agricultural
Chambers (TZOB) President Å~^emsi Bayraktar -- earlier supported
sanctions against French companies and products.
"Now what? Are we going to tell France that we will not sell our
products to them any longer? On the contrary, we should not remove
all the bridges [between us] at once. For us, Turkish businessmen
should remain calmer [than politicians]. As exporters, we should play
our role to improve bilateral relations between Turkey and France,"
BuyukekÅ~_i said at a press conference in Ä°stanbul. France is Turkey's
fifth largest exports market -- with a total exports volume of $6.9
billion in 2011 -- after Germany, Iraq, the United Kingdom and Italy,
in descending order. Trade between Turkey and France is slightly
imbalanced to benefit France; the total value of goods sold by France
to Turkey in 2011 was $8.6 billion. But it goes without saying that
an interruption of trade between the two countries will affect Turkey
more than France, given that Turkish exports to France accounts for
5 percent of Turkey's exports, whereas Turkey provides less than 1
percent of France's overseas imports. Likewise, France's exports to
Turkey are just 1.5 percent of the total goods exported by France.
However, a mass boycott -- particularly in the fields of banking,
energy, automobiles, retail, cosmetics and pharmaceuticals, where
many French companies are active in Turkey -- might affect sales of
individual businesses and force them to pay much more for advertising.
The French parliament's upper house, or the Senate, approved the bill
late Monday, complicating an already-delicate relationship with the
rising power. Officials in President Nicolas Sarkozy's government,
however, insisted the vote did not directly target Turkey. Sarkozy,
who personally supported the bill, plans to sign the measure into
law within the 15-day period allotted after the passage of a bill,
which took place on Monday, an official from France's presidential
Elysee Palace, told The Associated Press on Tuesday.
Turkey responds to genocide allegations by saying that the 1915
killings of Armenians were not ordered by the central Ottoman
administration; rather, they were the work of individuals who were
angered by Armenian gangs' killings of Muslim civilians, in what is
today eastern Turkey, while the territory was under the threat of a
Russian invasion. In response to an earlier approval of the bill by
the French parliament's lower house, the Turkish government suspended
military, economic and political ties with Paris and briefly recalled
its ambassador last month.
Controversial public tender In a related story, Gemalto N.V., an
Amsterdam-based digital security firm whose main shareholder is the
French sovereign wealth fund Fonds Stratégique d'Investissement (FSI),
won a key 7.5 million euro public tender to provide the electronic
chips used in Turkish passports after the first approval of the
genocide bill by the French parliament. The agreement is expected
to be signed with Gemalto soon. But some speculate that the Turkish
government might move to overturn the tender due to the recent tension
with France.
The FSI was created to enhance equity and to help stabilize French
business. It is 49 percent owned by the French government and the
rest is owned by the Caisse des Depots et Consignations, a French
financial organization controlled by the very French parliament whose
upper house, despite warnings from Turkey, gave final approval for
the genocide denial bill.