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TelAviv: Turkey Warns Sarkozy Over Armenian Genocide Law

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  • TelAviv: Turkey Warns Sarkozy Over Armenian Genocide Law

    TURKEY WARNS SARKOZY OVER ARMENIAN GENOCIDE LAW
    By Gavriel Queenann

    Arutz Sheva
    http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/152063
    Jan 24 2012
    Israel

    Turkey continues to threaten France as President Nicolas Sarkozy
    prepares to sign a bill recognizing the Armenian Genocide.

    Turkey warned French president Nicolas Sarkozy on Tuesday against
    signing a law that makes it a crime to deny that the killings of
    Armenians by Ottoman Turks nearly a century ago constituted genocide.

    France's parliament approved the bill late Monday over Turkish
    objections. Officials in President Nicolas Sarkozy's government
    insisted the vote didn't directly target the country.

    Turkey, which sees the characterization of genocide for its
    anti-Armenian pogroms as an insult to its national honor, has
    already suspended military, economic and political ties with Paris,
    and briefly recalled its ambassador last month when the lower house
    of French parliament approved the same bill.

    The Senate voted 127 to 86 to pass the bill late Monday. Twenty-four
    people abstained. The measure sets a punishment of up to one year
    in prison and a fine of C45,000 ($59,000) for those who deny or
    "outrageously minimize" the killings.

    For some in France, the bill is part of a tradition of legislation
    in some European countries, born of the agonies of the Holocaust,
    which criminalizes the denial of genocide. Denying the Holocaust is
    already a punishable crime in France.

    Most historians contend that the 1915 killings of 1.5 million
    Armenians as the Ottoman Empire broke up was the 20th century's first
    genocide, and several European countries recognize the massacres
    as such. Switzerland has convicted people of racism for denying
    the genocide.

    The harsh crackdown came during an ongoing Russian-backed series
    of Armenian rebellions in Turkey. Armenians call the massacre "The
    Great Crime."

    However, there are those who feel referring to the pogroms carried
    out by Turkey against the Armenians Genocide cheapens the Holocaust as
    the Jews of Europe were peaceful members of European society striving
    to be good citizens.

    Turkey's pogroms - The Great Crime - came in response to a widespread
    Russian-backed Armenian rebellion.

    Officials in Ankara say there was no systematic campaign to
    kill Armenians and that many Turks also died during the chaotic
    disintegration of the empire. It also says that death toll is inflated.

    Sarkozy, whose party supported the bill, must sign it into law,
    but that is largely considered a formality.

    The office of Turkish prime minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan warned
    that Turkey would take further, unspecified steps to punish France
    if Sarkozy follows through.

    Analysts say, however, with Sarkozy up for re-election and some
    400,000 ethnic Armenians holding French citizenship he is unlikely
    to be dissuaded.




    From: A. Papazian
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