CHIRAC CALLS FOR TURKEY TO RECOGNISE WW1 ARMENIAN GENOCIDE

EuroNews – English Version
September 30, 2006

President Jacques Chirac has begun a two day visit to Armenia. The
French leader paid his respects at a monument to thousands of people
who were killed in the area during the World War One. Chirac used the
occasion to urge Turkey to recognise the 1915 to 1919 massacres at
the hands of the former Ottoman Turk regime. He said "All countries
grow up acknowledging their dramas and their errors."

According to Armenian sources, more than 1.5 million people died
in mass killings and deportations. They claim the deaths amounted
to genocide. But Turkey, which wants to be a member of the EU,
continues to reject this and says the total number of deaths were
nearer a quarter- of- million and sparked by an internal conflict.