FRENCH BILL ON ARMENIAN DEATHS WORRIES TURKEY
By Martin Arnold in Paris and Vincent Boland in Ankara

FT
May 18 2006 03:00

France’s relations with Turkey will come under strain today if the
parliament in Paris approves a bill that would make it a crime to
deny the killing of Armenians by Ottoman troops in 1915 was genocide.

Turkish academics have warned that if the opposition proposal becomes
law, it would be “disastrous” for the democratic movement in Turkey.

It could also cause economic disruption, with business leaders warning
that French products could be boycotted in Turkey.

Ankara recalled its ambassador to Paris briefly last week “for
consultations” in protest at today’s vote. It also pulled back its
ambassador to Ottawa, following comments by the Canadian prime minister
that appeared to express support for Armenia’s view that the killings
were genocide.

The Armenian issue is particularly sensitive in France because of
its 450,000-strong Armenian community.

Armenians claim up to 1.5m people died in 1915-18. Turkey denies
genocide, and admits only that hundreds of thousands of both Armenians
and Turks died, largely due to civil war and famine.

Halil Berktay, one of the first Turkish historians to break the taboo
on Armenia, said in yesterday’s Le Monde that the effects of thenew
French law would be “disastrous”.

He warned that Ankara could retaliate with a law criminalising
recognition of the genocide. “There is a strong nationalist,
anti-European wave in Turkey at the moment.” he said.

The French bill would punish denial of the genocide with one year in
prison or a â~B¬45,000 fine, matching the penalty for denial of the
Jewish Holocaust.

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