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ANKARA: Former French Minister Expresses Regret Over Backing Armenia

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  • ANKARA: Former French Minister Expresses Regret Over Backing Armenia

    FORMER FRENCH MINISTER EXPRESSES REGRET OVER BACKING ARMENIAN BILL

    Hurriyet
    Feb 4 2009
    Turkey

    ANKARA - A former French minister said he felt guilty and regretful
    for voting in favor of a law that recognized the 1915 incidents as
    "genocide" in 2001. His remarks incited fierce reactions among the
    Armenian diaspora in France.

    "At that time I believed it was both a spiritual and historical
    correction. But I am not sure now if I would do the same," Jack Lang,
    France's former culture minister, told a conference organized by a
    website titled "Turquie Europeenne".

    The video of the conference containing Lang's remarks was only recently
    released in the country.

    The issue of the 1915 incidents is highly sensitive for Turkey as
    well as Armenia. Around 300,000 Armenians and at least as many Turks,
    died in civil strife that emerged when Armenians took up arms, backed
    by Russia, for independence in eastern Anatolia.

    However Armenia, with the backing of the diaspora, claims up to 1.5
    million of their kin were slaughtered in orchestrated killings in
    1915. The issue remains unsolved as Armenia drags its feet in accepting
    Turkey's proposal of forming a commission to investigate the claims.

    Lang said he had voted against a controversial bill adopted by the
    French parliament making it a crime to deny recognition of 1915
    incidents as "genocide", because the action was abused for election
    interests.

    "The denial bill was passed with the aim of an election investment,
    not because they understood the pains of Armenians. Accordingly it
    is dangerous that history is made by politicians," he said.

    Lang, 69, was one of the strongest supporters of 2001's Armenian
    bill in French parliament, and as head of the Parliamentary Foreign
    Relations Commission, he pressured the French Senate to pass the
    bill immediately. He ran to be the Socialist Party's presidential
    candidate for the 2007 elections.

    The Armenian diaspora in France directed fierce criticism at Lang
    over his recently published remarks. Armenian organizations in
    France sent letters of protest to several current and former leaders
    from the Socialist Party, and accused Lang of insulting France and
    humanitarian values.
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