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Turkey Urges France To Drop Armenian "Genocide" Bill

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  • Turkey Urges France To Drop Armenian "Genocide" Bill

    TURKEY URGES FRANCE TO DROP ARMENIAN "GENOCIDE" BILL

    Agence France Presse -- English
    May 18, 2006 Thursday 1:57 PM GMT

    Turkey urged France to abandon plans to criminalize denials of
    the Armenian "genocide" after a scheduled vote on a draft bill in
    the French parliament was called off Thursday, averting a possible
    diplomatic crisis with Ankara.

    "Our expectation from now on is to give up bringing the proposal to
    the agenda of the French parliament again," a Turkish foreign ministry
    statement said.

    It also called on France to lend support to Ankara's proposal for
    the establishment of a Turkish-Armenian committee of historians
    to study the World War I massacres of Armenians under the Ottoman
    Empire, research state archives and declare their conclusion to the
    international community.

    The bill foresees up to five years in prison and a fine of 45,000 euros
    (57,000 dollars) for denying that the Armenians were the victim of
    a genocide.

    The debate at the French parliament earlier Thursday saw angry scenes
    as supporters of the bill, introduced by the Socialist opposition,
    accused members of the ruling Union for a Popular Movement (UMP)
    of stalling the session.

    The debate started late and the time allocated for its discussion
    ran out before a vote could take place.

    Discussion of the controversial text will now be pushed back to
    October at the earliest, under the parliamentary calendar.

    Foreign Minister Philippe Douste-Blazy came out openly against the
    bill, which follows on from a 2001 French law officially recognizing
    the 1915-1917 massacres as genocide.

    Earlier this month, Ankara briefly recalled its ambassador from
    Paris for consultations and warned that the adoption of the bill
    would damage ties.

    Turkey categorically rejects the "genocide" label, arguing that 300,000
    Armenians and as many Turks were killed in civil strife in the final
    years of the Ottoman Empire when the Armenians rose up for independence
    in eastern Anatolia and sided with invading Russian troops.

    Armenians claim up to 1.5 million of their kin were slaughtered
    in orchestrated killings and are pressing a campaign for their
    international recognition as genocide.
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