Turkey warns France Armenian bill will hit trade, bilateral ties

Agence France Presse — English
October 6, 2006 Friday

Turkey warned France on Friday that bilateral political and economic
ties will suffer if the French parliament approves a law making it
a punishable offence to deny the Armenian "genocide."

"The Armenian issue has poisoned bilateral ties in the past, but the
bill will inflict irreparable damage on our relationship," foreign
ministry spokesman Namik Tan told a press conference here.

He warned the move could jeopardise "investments, the fruit of years
of work, and France will — so to speak — lose Turkey."

France is one of Turkey’s main trade partners, with a volume of 8.2
billion euros (10 billion dolars) in 2005.

Tan appealed to the French parliament to block the bill.

"Our expectation is that France will to avoid taking the wrong step,"
he said, arguing that adoption of the bill would mean the elimination
of freedom of expression in France.

The French National Assembly is expected to convene on October 12 to
discuss the bill that would make denying Armenians were the victims
of a genocide during World War I punishable by up to five years in
prison and a fine of 45,000 euros (57,000 dollars).

The bill follows on a 2001 French law officially recognizing the
massacres as genocide.

In French law, the same punishment is applicable to those deny that
the Jewish Holocaust took place.

"If the bill is adopted on October 12, the Turkish people will see
it as a hostile act by France … It will not be possible to contain
public reaction," Tan said, referring to a possible boycott of French
goods in Turkey.

The Armenian bill, drawn up by the Socialist opposition, was first
brought to the French assembly in May, but the vote was postponed to
October after filibustering by the ruling party.

Turkey had at the time threatened trade sanctions against France and
briefly summoned its ambassador in Paris back for consultations.

Tan said Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan would meet the
French business community in Turkey in Istanbul on Saturday to discuss
the bill.

Turkish Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul was expected to call his French
counterpart Philippe Douste-Blazy, an opponent of the bill, later
Friday, he added.

The Armenian massacres constitute one of the most controversial
episodes in Turkish history, often sending nationalist feelings
into frenzy.

Armenians allege up to 1.5 million of their kin were slaughtered in
orchestrated killings between 1915 and 1917 when the Ottoman Empire,
the predecessor of modern Turkey, was falling apart.

Turkey denies the claim, saying 300,000 Armenians and at least as
many Turks died in civil strife when the Armenians took up arms for
independence in eastern Anatolia and sided with invading Russian
troops; it categorically rejects the genocide label.