AZG Armenian Daily #190, 06/10/2006
Turkey
TURKISH FOREIGN MINISTRY EXPRESSES REGRET ABOUT STATEMENTS MADE BY FRENCH PRESIDENT JACQUES CHIRAC
In the course of his visit to Armenia, French president Jacques Chirac
made statements in which he demanded recognition of the Armenian
genocide from Turkey. He put forward the issue of recognition of the
Armenian genocide as a precondition for Turkey for becoming a EU member
state. These statements caused indignation of the Turkish circles.
Generally, EU structures didn’t give any positive evaluation to these
statements, either. Only the central French newspapers supported
President Chirac in his statements, emphasizing that he broke taboos.
Anyway, the Turkish Foreign Ministry also represented its response
to the above statements.
According to the pro-governmental "Yeni-Sharaf," the Turkish Foreign
Ministry expressed regret that the French President made pro-Armenian
statements in the course of his visit to Armenia. At the same time,
the foreign ministry expressed bewilderment that the recognition of the
genocide is no criteria for becoming an EU member state. They stated
that being well aware of that fact, Chirac created the illusion that
the claims of the Armenians are EU criteria and caused the indignation
of the Turkish people.
By Hakob Chakrian
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress
