ROW OVER GENOCIDE
7DAYS, United Arab Emirates
May 4 2006
Turkey warned France yesterday that bilateral ties could suffer if
the French parliament adopts a bill that would criminalise any denial
that Armenians massacred during World War I were victims of genocide.
“In our meetings (with French officials), we stress that adoption
of the bill could lead to irreparable damage in long-standing
Turkish-French ties and that this should not be allowed,” foreign
ministry spokesman Namik Tan said.
Expected to be voted on later this month, it provides for one year’s
imprisonment and a $57,000 fine for denying that Armenians were
victims of genocide.
If adopted, it will follow a 2001 French decision that infuriated
Turkey by acknowledging that the mass killings in the dying days of
the Ottoman Empire amounted to genocide.
Armenians say up to 1.5 million of their kin were slaughtered in
orchestrated killings between 1915 and 1917 by Turks, as the Ottoman
Empire was falling apart. Turkey rejects that, saying 300,000 Armenians
and at least as many Turks died in civil strife.
enocide.html