Franco-Turkish groups rally against Armenian genocide memorial

Agence France Presse — English
March 18, 2006 Saturday 7:38 PM GMT

LYON, France, March 18 2006 — Several thousand people joined a
boisterous rally in this southeastern French city Saturday organized
by Franco-Turkish associations opposed to the construction of an
Armenian genocide memorial.

The meeting turned rowdy when another group, students staging their
own protest against a controversial new employment contract for youths,
began throwing bottles and police stepped in with tear gas to separate
the two groups.

Police estimated the pro-Turkish gathering at about 3,200 protestors,
who carried signs claiming “There never was an Armenian genocide”.

“We do not want a monument erected. It is a verdict without a
judgment,” said Sevda Gog, a representative of the Franco-Turkish
committee, which plans to petition the Socialist mayor of Lyon,
Gerard Collomb.

In 2001 France declared to be genocide against Armenians the events
that took place under the Ottoman empire from 1915 to 1917, leaving
1.5 million dead, according to Armenian estimates. The French decision
angered Turkey.

In 2003 Collomb announced that Lyon would build an Armenian memorial,
though plans were suspended on the advice of the regional commission.

Armenians say their kinsmen were slaughtered in an orchestrated
genocide under the Ottoman Empire, a theory many countries have
endorsed, much to Ankara’s ire.

Turkey rejects the genocide label and argues that between 300,000
and half a million Armenians and at least as many Turks died in civil
strife during World War I when Armenians took up arms for independence
in eastern Anatolia and sided with Russian troops invading the
crumbling empire.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress