FRENCH CHAIRMAN TO VEX TURKS

Azg/arm
9 Feb 05

A delegation headed by the chairman of the National Assembly of
France was paying an official visit to Turkey these days. Judging from
Turkish mass mediaâ~@~Ys avarice in providing information on issues
Jean-Luis Debret raised, one can conclude that they were extremely
vexing for Turkey.

As daily Azg informed yesterday, the French chairman touched a very
sensitive issue during his get-together with Turkish prime minister
â~@~S the Genocide issue. PM Recep Tayyip Erdogan responded that they
have left the issue to historians to discuss and added: “Unlike them,
we have opened our archives”. Arsen Avagian, envoy of Armenia at
Organization of the Black Sea Economic Cooperation, headquartered in
Istanbul told Turkish Hyuriet newspaper on February 7 that 3 separate
sources in Yerevan study the issue and emphasized: “Those archives
are open for all scientists of the world, including Turkish. But no
Turkish scientists has ever applied for researching them.”

The question is not the archives, certainly, but the French
chairmanâ~@~Ys unpleasant surprise and the indignation it stirred
up. Another Turkish newspaper, the pro-government Yeni Shafaq,
responded to Debretâ~@~Ys words on February 7 and partly cast light
on the event.

According to Yeni Shafaq, Jean-Luis Debret not only raised the issue
of Armenian Genocide but also demanded urgent solution considering
its recognition an actual issue. He incited the Turks to “win the
French electorsâ~@~Y sympathy” then promised that there will be no
other issue after the Genocide recognition.

It is interesting that Debret left unanswered a Turkish
journalistâ~@~Ys question that “PACE recognized Armenia as occupant
of Azeri territories. Whatâ~@~Ys your approach?”.

By Hakob Chakrian

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