TURKISH ANGER AHEAD FRENCH PARLIAMENT’S DEBATE ON ARMENIAN GENOCIDE BILL

Arabesques, Algeria
Oct 10 2006

There is growing anger in Turkey at a bill to be debated by the French
Parliament on Thursday which will make denial of the mass killing of
Armenians under the Turkish Ottoman empire a criminal offense. Turkish
government officials have warned about the political and economic
repercussions if the bill passes and becomes law.

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan at a meeting of his party
on the weekend asked sarcastically whether French officials would put
him in jail if he were to cast doubt on the Armenian genocide during
a visit to France.

Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul has warned that if the bill is passed,
it could jeopardise French participation in major economic projects,
including the planned construction of a nuclear plant in Turkey.

Both Gul and Turkish president Ahmet Necdet Sezer sent letters to their
counterparts, respectively Philippe Douste-Blazy and Jacques Chirac,
stressing the possible negative consequences of passing the bill.

Turkey’s powerful military establishment has also joined the growing
chorus of protests against France. The country’ top military commander,
the Chief of General Staff Gen. Yasar Buyukanit said Turkey would
cut military ties with France if the bill was adopted.

Also ahead of the French Parliament’s debate on the bill, the Turkish
Parliament are set to discuss a bill on Wednesday that would foresee
penalties for any denial of the killings of Algerians under French
colonial rule.

Business chambers and consumer associations have also called for a
boycott of French products.

Zafer Caglayan, the chairman of Ankara Chamber of Industry declared
that he would say "there is no Armenian genocide" on his scheduled
speech to the Paris Chamber of Commerce and Industry on 12 October.

"I will be the first to be penalised on that bill," said Caglayan
who also proposed visas for French nationals visiting Turkey.

But Turkey has not been alone in raising objections to the French bill.

The EU’s Enlargement Commisioner Olli Rehn said in Brussels that
while France asks for more freedom of expression in Turkey, the
French parliament itself will debate a bill that will limit freedom
of expression in France.

According to some estimates over a million Armenians died during
1915- 1917 through forced removals and planned massacres by the
Turkish authorities.

The Turkish government and several international historians reject
the label "genocide," and claim that the deaths among the Armenians
were not a result of a state-sponsored plan of mass extermination,
but of inter-ethnic strife, disease and famine during the turmoil of
World War I.

In Turkey it is a criminal offence to label the killing as a genocide.

France is Turkey’s fifth biggest partner in exports and imports.

Turkey’s exports to France last year totalled 3.7 billion dollars
while iimports reached 5.8 billion dollars. Major French companies
including Renault, Axa, Danone and BNP Paribas and Carrefour have
great amounts of investments in Turkey.