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TURKEY'S ERDOGAN CALLS 'NEW ERA' IN RELATIONS WITH FRANCE
Hurriyet Daily News
May 11 2012
Turkey
Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdošan has called for a "new
era" in Franco-Turkish relations in a congratulatory phone call to
president-elect Francois Hollande, officials said today.
In the call late on Thursday, Erdošan said he hoped "Turko-French
relations will from now on be free from artificial questions currently
affecting them," an official in Erdošan's entourage said.
"I am confident on the subject of a new era in our relations,"
Erdošan told Hollande, according to the official.
France's relations with Turkey have been frosty under outgoing
president Nicolas Sarkozy, who opposed Turkish entry in the European
Union.
They further soured after French lawmakers passed a bill with Sarkozy's
backing that outlawed denying the 1915 Armenian genocide claims under
Ottoman Turkey. France's Constitutional Council struck the bill down
in February, ruling that it violated freedom of expression.
Erdošan had accused Sarkozy of trying to boost his election prospects
by tapping anti-Muslim and anti-Turkish sentiment.
Hurriyet Daily News
May 11 2012
Turkey
Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdošan has called for a "new
era" in Franco-Turkish relations in a congratulatory phone call to
president-elect Francois Hollande, officials said today.
In the call late on Thursday, Erdošan said he hoped "Turko-French
relations will from now on be free from artificial questions currently
affecting them," an official in Erdošan's entourage said.
"I am confident on the subject of a new era in our relations,"
Erdošan told Hollande, according to the official.
France's relations with Turkey have been frosty under outgoing
president Nicolas Sarkozy, who opposed Turkish entry in the European
Union.
They further soured after French lawmakers passed a bill with Sarkozy's
backing that outlawed denying the 1915 Armenian genocide claims under
Ottoman Turkey. France's Constitutional Council struck the bill down
in February, ruling that it violated freedom of expression.
Erdošan had accused Sarkozy of trying to boost his election prospects
by tapping anti-Muslim and anti-Turkish sentiment.