7DAYS, United Arab Emirates
May 14 2006

Armenian genocide threat

Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan threatened France with trade
sanctions if it adopts a bill making it illegal to deny that the
1915-1917 massacre of Armenians in Turkey was genocide, a Turkish
newspaper said yesterday.

`Patience has its limits. We do not have hatred (towards France) but
we will impose our sanctions,’ the Turkish newspaper Hurriyet quoted
Erdogan as saying at a summit of Muslim countries on the Indonesian
island of Bali.

French lawmakers were due to consider on Thursday a bill from the
opposition Socialists which would make anyone denying the existence
of the Armenian genocide liable to a five-year jail term and $57,000
fine.

French MPs should be `particularly sensitive’ to the issue of
possible sanctions since France is the number one investor in Turkey,
Erdogan said.