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FRENCH-TURK FRICTION CLOUDS SYRIA MEETING
Vestnik Kavkaza
March 6 2012
Russia
As Turkey prepares to host the second gathering of the "Friends
of Syria" group to discuss the Syrian crisis in Istanbul in March,
Ankara is still deciding whether to inviteFrench Foreign Minister
Alain Juppe. Political ties between the two countries have been
strained over a "genocide" bill, Hurriyet Daily News reports.
"We haven't sent any invitation to any country yet. We will still
consider inviting Juppe," a Turkish diplomat told the Hurriyet Daily
News yesterday. Turkey had not ruled out the participation of France,
since it would not be a bilateral meeting, but rather a multi-party
gathering, the diplomat said, implying a higher likelihood he would
be invited.
Turkey will host the second "Friends of Syria" conference in late
March, following the group's first meeting in Tunis on Feb. 24.
If Turkey decides to invite France to the gathering, the invitation
would be for Foreign Minister Alain Juppe, not French President
Nicholas Sarkozy, as the conference would be at the ministerial level,
the diplomat said.
Juppe is known to be against the law the French parliament passed
in December 2011 which made denying the Ottoman empire committed
genocide against its Armenian population in the World War I era a
criminal offense.
Vestnik Kavkaza
March 6 2012
Russia
As Turkey prepares to host the second gathering of the "Friends
of Syria" group to discuss the Syrian crisis in Istanbul in March,
Ankara is still deciding whether to inviteFrench Foreign Minister
Alain Juppe. Political ties between the two countries have been
strained over a "genocide" bill, Hurriyet Daily News reports.
"We haven't sent any invitation to any country yet. We will still
consider inviting Juppe," a Turkish diplomat told the Hurriyet Daily
News yesterday. Turkey had not ruled out the participation of France,
since it would not be a bilateral meeting, but rather a multi-party
gathering, the diplomat said, implying a higher likelihood he would
be invited.
Turkey will host the second "Friends of Syria" conference in late
March, following the group's first meeting in Tunis on Feb. 24.
If Turkey decides to invite France to the gathering, the invitation
would be for Foreign Minister Alain Juppe, not French President
Nicholas Sarkozy, as the conference would be at the ministerial level,
the diplomat said.
Juppe is known to be against the law the French parliament passed
in December 2011 which made denying the Ottoman empire committed
genocide against its Armenian population in the World War I era a
criminal offense.