Chirac: Turkey will need to recognize Armenian killings during entry talks
By RAF CASERT
The Associated Press
12/17/04 13:17 EST
BRUSSELS, Belgium (AP) – French President Jacques Chirac told Ankara on
Friday it would have to recognize the mass killings of Armenians in the early
20th century if it wants to become a member of the European Union, insisting the
French would otherwise vote Turkey out in a referendum.
In an extremely guarded welcome to the announcement that the EU will open
membership negotiations with Turkey next October, Chirac said Ankara needed to
go even beyond the list of conditions imposed on it at the EU summit Friday.
“The French people will have the last word,” Chirac told reporters about
the possible referendum if Turkey’s membership negotiations are successful in
ten to 15 years’ time.
He said the French would resolutely vote against membership if the Armenian
massacres are not recognized by the Turkish government.
“If this work is not done then the French would clearly draw conclusions
from this,” he said.
Many French have grave misgivings about Turkey joining, fearing an influx of
cheap labor to France, already stung by 10 percent unemployment. Many here
also question Turkey’s human rights record and its people’s embrace of Islam.
Armenia accuses Turkey of genocide in the killings of up to 1.5 million
Armenians as part of a 1915-1923 campaign to force them out of eastern Turkey. At
that time, Armenia was part of the Ottoman Empire.
Turkey remains extremely sensitive to the issue. It denies the genocide,
says the death count is inflated and that Armenians were killed or displaced
along with others as the Ottoman Empire tried to quell civil unrest.
All EU nations must approve any new member, effectively giving each country
a veto.
Chirac said he was confident Turkey would move toward that recognition in
time, but the episode on Armenia highlighted a press conference flush with
warnings and conditions that there were many ways the negotiations could go wrong.
“Turkey will have to make a remarkable effort,” Chirac said, although he
recognized the country had already made “formidable efforts” in pushing
through political and economic reforms to make it to candidate member status.
He stressed that any member can block talks on any chapter under review for
membership and said that if Turkey is found guilty of human right violations,
the talks would be suspended.
Overall, Chirac said, “no one can prejudge what will happen. Possibly
things can go wrong and you can have a crisis, either from the EU or Turkish side.
Then you would have a rift.”
French-Turkish ties became strained in 2001, when French parliament’s
recognition of the killings as a genocide sparked a boycott of French goods and an
exclusion of French companies from Turkish defense contracts.