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NaharNet, Lebanon
April 7 2007
Turkey Punishes France for Recognizing Armenian Massacre
Turkey, reacting to a French bill on the World War I massacre of
Armenians, has suspended talks with Gaz de France (GDF) on the French
firm's possible participation in a major pipeline project, the
Anatolia news agency reported Thursday.
Turkey's energy ministry and the state-owned oil and gas company
BOTAS, which is part of the Nabucco consortium building the pipeline,
refused to comment on the report.
The five-company consortium plans to build a 3,300-kilometre
(2,000-mile) pipeline that will carry natural gas from the Middle
East and Central Asia to the European Union via Turkey and the
Balkans, bypassing Russia.
The other partners in the venture are Austria's oil and gas group
OMV, Hungary's MOL, Bulgaria's Bulgargaz and Romania's Transgaz.
The consortium had been in contact with GDF for some time as part of
its efforts to find a sixth partner in the six-billion-dollar
(4.5-billion-euro) project, which is expected to become operational
in 2012.
The four other partners approved GDF's participation, but Turkey has
opposed it because of a French draft law that considers denying the
genocide committed by Ottoman Turks against Armenians in World War I
a legal offence.
The bill was adopted by the National Assembly in Paris in October but
must still go before the Senate, then back to the lower house before
becoming law.
Turkey had threatened unspecified measures against the bill, which it
denounced as a "heavy blow" to bilateral ties.
In November, the Turkish army froze military ties with France.
Armenians claim up to 1.5 million of their kin perished in systematic
deportations and killings between 1915 and 1917 under the Ottoman
Empire, modern Turkey's predecessor.
Turkey categorically denies claims of genocide and says thousands of
Turks and Armenians were killed in civil strife when Armenians took
up arms for independence in eastern Anatolia and sided with Russian
troops invading the crumbling empire.
Several countries have recognized the killings as
genocide.(AFP-Naharnet)
April 7 2007
Turkey Punishes France for Recognizing Armenian Massacre
Turkey, reacting to a French bill on the World War I massacre of
Armenians, has suspended talks with Gaz de France (GDF) on the French
firm's possible participation in a major pipeline project, the
Anatolia news agency reported Thursday.
Turkey's energy ministry and the state-owned oil and gas company
BOTAS, which is part of the Nabucco consortium building the pipeline,
refused to comment on the report.
The five-company consortium plans to build a 3,300-kilometre
(2,000-mile) pipeline that will carry natural gas from the Middle
East and Central Asia to the European Union via Turkey and the
Balkans, bypassing Russia.
The other partners in the venture are Austria's oil and gas group
OMV, Hungary's MOL, Bulgaria's Bulgargaz and Romania's Transgaz.
The consortium had been in contact with GDF for some time as part of
its efforts to find a sixth partner in the six-billion-dollar
(4.5-billion-euro) project, which is expected to become operational
in 2012.
The four other partners approved GDF's participation, but Turkey has
opposed it because of a French draft law that considers denying the
genocide committed by Ottoman Turks against Armenians in World War I
a legal offence.
The bill was adopted by the National Assembly in Paris in October but
must still go before the Senate, then back to the lower house before
becoming law.
Turkey had threatened unspecified measures against the bill, which it
denounced as a "heavy blow" to bilateral ties.
In November, the Turkish army froze military ties with France.
Armenians claim up to 1.5 million of their kin perished in systematic
deportations and killings between 1915 and 1917 under the Ottoman
Empire, modern Turkey's predecessor.
Turkey categorically denies claims of genocide and says thousands of
Turks and Armenians were killed in civil strife when Armenians took
up arms for independence in eastern Anatolia and sided with Russian
troops invading the crumbling empire.
Several countries have recognized the killings as
genocide.(AFP-Naharnet)