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FRANCE SAYS IT IS "VERY ATTENTIVE" TO TURKISH ANGER OVER ARMENIAN GENOCIDE BILL
AP Worldstream
May 10, 2006
France said Wednesday that it is "very attentive" to Turkey's anger
over a French bill that would criminalize denial of Armenian genocide.
The comment from France's foreign ministry came as Turkish legislators
lobbied their French counterparts to vote down the Armenian genocide
bill.
Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has reportedly said that
the bill would damage relations between the two countries.
"We are very attentive to the Turkish authorities' reactions on this
subject," said French Foreign Ministry spokesman Denis Simonneau.
He did not comment further, referring reporters to an earlier
declaration and to lawmakers who drafted the bill.
The proposed law would make it a crime to deny that the mass killings
of Armenians by Ottoman Turks at the beginning of the 20th century
constituted a genocide.
Turkey says the death toll given by Armenians is inflated and that
Armenians in Turkey were killed in civil unrest _ not genocide _
as the Ottoman Empire collapsed.
The French bill was proposed by the opposition Socialists. It is
similar to a law making it a crime in France to deny the Holocaust
of World War II.
The visiting Turkish legislators from Erdogan's ruling party and the
opposition met with senior French legislators from the ruling right
and opposition left.
Lawmaker Onur Oymen said they "relayed the Turkish people's strong
reaction to our French colleagues" and warned that there were calls
for a boycott of French goods in Turkey and that Turkish-French
relations would be severely harmed if the bill is passed, Turkey's
Anatolia news agency reported.
AP Worldstream
May 10, 2006
France said Wednesday that it is "very attentive" to Turkey's anger
over a French bill that would criminalize denial of Armenian genocide.
The comment from France's foreign ministry came as Turkish legislators
lobbied their French counterparts to vote down the Armenian genocide
bill.
Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has reportedly said that
the bill would damage relations between the two countries.
"We are very attentive to the Turkish authorities' reactions on this
subject," said French Foreign Ministry spokesman Denis Simonneau.
He did not comment further, referring reporters to an earlier
declaration and to lawmakers who drafted the bill.
The proposed law would make it a crime to deny that the mass killings
of Armenians by Ottoman Turks at the beginning of the 20th century
constituted a genocide.
Turkey says the death toll given by Armenians is inflated and that
Armenians in Turkey were killed in civil unrest _ not genocide _
as the Ottoman Empire collapsed.
The French bill was proposed by the opposition Socialists. It is
similar to a law making it a crime in France to deny the Holocaust
of World War II.
The visiting Turkish legislators from Erdogan's ruling party and the
opposition met with senior French legislators from the ruling right
and opposition left.
Lawmaker Onur Oymen said they "relayed the Turkish people's strong
reaction to our French colleagues" and warned that there were calls
for a boycott of French goods in Turkey and that Turkish-French
relations would be severely harmed if the bill is passed, Turkey's
Anatolia news agency reported.