TURKEY EXPECTS MODERATE APPROACH FROM FRENCH EXECUTIVES, TAN

Anatolian Times, Turkey
May 4 2006

ANKARA – “Turkey expects French executives to display a commonsensical
approach on issues related to groundless Armenian claims of so-called
genocide,” Turkish MFA Spokesman Namik Tan said on Wednesday.

Speaking at a weekly news conference, Tan said, “we have expressed
our uneasiness to French authorities as regards the bill submitted to
French parliament and making any rejection of the so-called Armenian
genocide a crime, since it risks to damage Turkish-French relations.”

Tan said “in discussions pertaining to their history Frenchmen say
‘politicians and parliamentarians should not say anything on issues
related to history, and that such issues should be assessed by
historians’.”

Tan said those expressions were in line with the thesis Turkey has
been defending for years. “We cannot accept double standards and
contradicting approaches on this issue,” Tan indicated.