Fort Worth Star Telegram, TX
May 12 2006

Turks defy labeling of WWI Armenian deaths as genocide

By BENJAMIN HARVEY

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS/MURAD SEZER
Protesters with the Workers’ Party hold posters saying, “The genocide
lie is an American game,” left, and “The Armenian genocide is an
international lie” at the French consulate in Istanbul, Turkey.

ISTANBUL, Turkey — Turkey has pulled out of a military exercise in
Canada and hinted at economic repercussions against France, stepping
up protests of accusations that Turks committed genocide against
Armenians during World War I.

The Turkish government this week briefly recalled ambassadors from
NATO allies France and Canada to protest the Canadian Prime Minister
Stephen Harper’s declaration last month that the killings of
Armenians constituted genocide, and a French bill that would outlaw
denying that Armenians were genocide victims. The ambassadors
returned Thursday after four days in Turkey.

The Turkish Foreign Ministry said Thursday that it was pulling out of
an Air Force training exercise in Canada, to which it had been
expected to send officers and several F-16 fighters.

“This decision is Turkey’s and we would not comment on why they have
made this decision,” said Pamela Greenwell, a spokeswoman for
Canada’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan held a private meeting in
Ankara on Tuesday with representatives of large French firms with
investments in Turkey, where he warned of serious harm to relations
if the genocide measure was allowed to pass.

Armenians say as many as 1.5 million Armenians died or were killed
over several years as part of a genocidal campaign to force them out
of eastern Turkey. Turkey acknowledges that large numbers of
Armenians died, but says that the overall figure is inflated and that
the deaths occurred in the civil unrest during the collapse of the
Ottoman Empire.

Turkey is facing increasing pressure to fully acknowledge the
killings, particularly as it seeks membership in the European Union.

But many in Turkey feel that, by using the word genocide to describe
the killings, other countries put the Ottoman Turks in the same
category as Nazi Germans.

Turkey has made it government policy to fight genocide assertions
with diplomatic and economic sanctions if necessary. But it is
unclear how far Turks are willing to go, especially if that could
mean harming the bid to join the EU.

“Sometimes you talk, then you have to behave according to the way you
talk, and you get to a place you never wanted to go in the first
place,” Ilter Turan, a political scientist at Istanbul Bilgi
University, said of whether Turkey would carry through on all its
threats.