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ANKARA: 450,000 Turks In France: Will You Imprison Us All?

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  • ANKARA: 450,000 Turks In France: Will You Imprison Us All?

    450,000 TURKS IN FRANCE: WILL YOU IMPRISON US ALL?
    By Ali Ihsan Aydin, Paris

    Zaman, Turkey
    May 16 2006

    The bill, punishing those who deny the Armenian genocide due for
    discussion in the French Parliament on Thursday, is worrying the
    450,000 Turks living in France.

    If the bill is enacted, tens of thousands of Turkish expatriates will
    become potential offenders.

    Turkish-French citizens say the denial bill cannot be enforced say,
    "Will you put in prison tens of thousands deniers of the genocide?"

    Turkish expatriates have been reacting against the Socialist Party
    (PS), which prepared the bill, and will organize protests on May 18
    before the French Assembly.

    They will send their message to the French parliamentarians by chaining
    themselves and taping their mouths.

    Turkish-origin head of the PS's Strasbourg-Neuhof town regional office
    Saban Kiper, protests his party's attempt and said, "I find it really
    unnecessary." Kiper has been conducting negotiations for three weeks
    with the party's regional office and headquarters, as well as evoking
    Turkish-French citizens to protest the bill.

    "Tens of thousands of Turkish-French citizens like me want to be proud
    of this country. However, how can you feel proud of it; it calls your
    ancestors murderers," said Kiper, PS's only Turkish origin regional
    branch president.

    Saban, also a member of the French Joint Culture Youth Council, says
    tens of thousands of Turks in France may be imprisoned, if the bill
    is enacted.

    Cojep President Ali Gedikoglu said they protested the motion with
    the slogan, "Don't restrict freedoms, don't keep the truth in the
    dark," and thousands of Turks sent letters of protest to the French
    authorities.

    Gedikoglu announced they will protest outside the French Parliament
    while the motion is being discussed on May 18; sending their message
    to parliamentarians by chaining themselves to the gates and tapping
    their mouths shut.

    The Cojep president indicated they were able to make contact with
    leading figures from the Socialist Party and may possibly meet with
    party leader Francois Hollande.

    Paris Anatolia Cultural Center Chairman Dr. Demir Onger thinks the
    motion is "a result of the effective lobbying activities the Armenian
    Diaspora in France has been conducing for 80 years," and says, "This
    attempt is a shame for France that pretends to be the champion of
    freedom of expression."

    "France, which refers the past to the historians when the issue is
    its own history, passes a law on the history of another country and
    displays a paradoxical attitude," cardiologist Dr. Onger defends,
    accusing France of "playing with the fire."

    Demir Onger noted they established the "Union for Freedom of
    Expression" in order to protest the motion and sent thousands of
    protest letters to the French authorities.

    Onger criticized Turkey's ineffective lobbying, describing it as
    "a vertical lobbying" conducted by top level bureaucrats or company
    bosses. Onger stated the Armenians follow a policy from the bottom
    up and said Turkey must initiate activities in an effort to persuade
    the French people in the long term.

    Yuksel Bilici, an expatriate graduate student on "Turks' political
    participation in France" living in the capital Paris, termed the
    proposal as an "election present" for the Armenian Diaspora asking,
    "Will they put 500,000 Turks in Jail?".

    Suleyman Toppeker, an official translator, said, "If 15,000 people
    sign a petition claiming 'We do not believe in the genocide', they
    will be immediately jailed".

    Marc Semo, an expert on Turkey from the leftist French paper,
    Liberation, advocating that the draft, which will cause problems over
    freedoms, concerns France a great deal and emphasizes the difficulty
    in the implementation of such a law.

    There is no political integrity in France prior to the election due
    in 2007, Semo revealed, and added French President Jacques Chirac,
    favoring Turkey, will not be able to do anything because the law
    could be acceded in parliament on May 18.

    The notice of motion leads to some concerns among expatriates, while
    several Turkish foundations and institutions in France have noticeably
    remained silent.

    Some other foundations referring to Zaman's view avoided sharing
    their assessments on the issue. Few pay attention to the case except
    for a number of foundations in France, where nearly 450,000 Turkish
    people reside.
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