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Armenian-French Group Accuses Turkey Of Blackmailing FrenchLegislato

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  • Armenian-French Group Accuses Turkey Of Blackmailing FrenchLegislato

    ARMENIAN-FRENCH GROUP ACCUSES TURKEY OF BLACKMAILING FRENCH LEGISLATORS INTO OPPOSING BILL

    AP Worldstream
    May 15, 2006

    An umbrella group accused Turkey of trying to blackmail French
    lawmakers into opposing proposed legislation making it a crime to
    deny that the killings of Armenians in World War I was genocide.

    The Council of Coordination of Armenian Organizations in France said
    Ankara was trying to exert pressure on France with letter-writing
    campaigns to French lawmakers and threats of an economic boycott.

    On Thursday, the French National Assembly is set to consider a bill,
    presented by the opposition Socialists, that would make it a crime to
    deny the Armenian genocide of 1915. It is already a crime in France
    to deny the Holocaust.

    Last week, Turkey briefly recalled its ambassador to France in protest,
    and Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan told French corporate
    leaders that the bill would damage bilateral ties.

    "The Armenian genocide: Turkey's unacceptable blackmail," the council
    said in a statement.

    Turkey also complained recently about a resolution adopted by Canada's
    parliament that recognizes the killings as genocide.

    The French Foreign Ministry said last week France was "very attentive"
    to Turkish authorities' concerns.

    Armenians say 1.5 million of their people were killed as the Ottoman
    Empire forced them from eastern Turkey between 1915 and 1923 _ and
    that it was a deliberate campaign of genocide by Turkey's rulers.

    Turks say the figure is inflated and insist that Armenians were killed
    or displaced as the Ottoman Empire tried to secure its border with
    Russia and stop attacks by Armenian militants.

    The chances of the bill passing in the French assembly appeared slim.

    The National Assembly is overwhelmingly controlled by President
    Jacques Chirac's conservatives, who have not passed a bill floated
    by the Socialist opposition since they took over parliament in 2002.
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