TURKEY URGES FRANCE TO DROP ARMENIAN “GENOCIDE” BILL

Agence France Presse — English
May 18, 2006 Thursday 1:57 PM GMT

Turkey urged France to abandon plans to criminalize denials of
the Armenian “genocide” after a scheduled vote on a draft bill in
the French parliament was called off Thursday, averting a possible
diplomatic crisis with Ankara.

“Our expectation from now on is to give up bringing the proposal to
the agenda of the French parliament again,” a Turkish foreign ministry
statement said.

It also called on France to lend support to Ankara’s proposal for
the establishment of a Turkish-Armenian committee of historians
to study the World War I massacres of Armenians under the Ottoman
Empire, research state archives and declare their conclusion to the
international community.

The bill foresees up to five years in prison and a fine of 45,000 euros
(57,000 dollars) for denying that the Armenians were the victim of
a genocide.

The debate at the French parliament earlier Thursday saw angry scenes
as supporters of the bill, introduced by the Socialist opposition,
accused members of the ruling Union for a Popular Movement (UMP)
of stalling the session.

The debate started late and the time allocated for its discussion
ran out before a vote could take place.

Discussion of the controversial text will now be pushed back to
October at the earliest, under the parliamentary calendar.

Foreign Minister Philippe Douste-Blazy came out openly against the
bill, which follows on from a 2001 French law officially recognizing
the 1915-1917 massacres as genocide.

Earlier this month, Ankara briefly recalled its ambassador from
Paris for consultations and warned that the adoption of the bill
would damage ties.

Turkey categorically rejects the “genocide” label, arguing that 300,000
Armenians and as many Turks were killed in civil strife in the final
years of the Ottoman Empire when the Armenians rose up for independence
in eastern Anatolia and sided with invading Russian troops.

Armenians claim up to 1.5 million of their kin were slaughtered
in orchestrated killings and are pressing a campaign for their
international recognition as genocide.