FRENCH ‘GENOCIDE’ BILL THREATENS TO SCUPPER TRADE WITH TURKEY
by Hande Culpan
Agence France Presse — English
October 11, 2006 Wednesday
France risks losing an important economic partner in Turkey and being
left out of major projects ranging from the defense sector to energy
if it adopts a controversial bill on the World War I-era massacres
of Armenians.
The French national assembly is scheduled to vote Thurday on the bill,
which provides one year in prison and a 45,000-euro (57,000-dollar)
fine for denying that Armenians were the victims of genocide between
1915 and 1917 under the Ottoman Empire, Turkey’s predecessor.
If the bill passes through the assembly, it will have to be approved
by the Senate and the President before it becomes law in what is
largely expected to be a lenghty process.
Turkish Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul has already warned that French
companies should expect to be barred from major tenders and several
civic groups have threatend to boycott French goods if the bill
is approved.
This would be a repetition of what happened in 2001, when France
officialy recognised the Armenian massacress as genocide, but French
businessmen here feel the repercussions of the new bill could be
more severe.
"In 2001, Turkey went though a huge economic crisis and the boycott
of French goods was forgotten. But I do not think it will be the same
this time round," Raphael Esposito, director of the French-Turkish
Chamber of Commerce, told AFP. "The wound will be deeper and will
not heal as quickly."
Analysts say Turkey cannot cancel projects already awarded to French
companies, but could easily bar them from future tenders.
One project France is interested in is the planned construction of
the country’s first nuclear power plant, which calls for an initial
investment of four billion dollars (about 3.1 billion euros).
The government plans to build three nuclear power plants with a total
capacity of about 5,000 megawatts, to be operational in 2012, in hopes
of preventing a possible energy shortage and reducing dependence on
foreign supplies, mainly from Russia and Iran.
Nuclear Power International (NPI), a subsidiary of Germany’s Siemens
and France’s Framatome, had previously bid in a now-defunct tender
to build a nuclear plant on Turkey’s southern Mediterranean coast.
Another area that could be adversely affected by the French bill is
the defence industry.
Eurocopter, the fruit of a Franco-German merger, is among four foreign
companies to submit bids for the purchase of 52 general-purpose
search-and-rescue helicopters for military and civilian use, a project
said to be worth several million dollars.
French companies are also keen to participate in several transport
and infrastructure projects in major Turkish cities, such as the
extension of Istanbul’s underground railway system.
Analysts, however, say Turkey could keep planned economic sanctions on
a strict bilateral level and not move against multinational companies
that may include France.
The French bill, if approved, is also likely to hit some 250 French
firms already present in Turkey and active in sectors ranging from food
and the automobile industry to banking and insurance, and providing
employment for about 65,000 people.
"All this is very tiring," Esref Hamacioglu, the director in Turkey
of Sodexho, a French food voucher company.
He said his firm lost about one million euros (1.25 million dollars)
in 2001, during a two-week boycott triggered by France’s recognition
of the Armenian massacres as genocide.
Bilateral trade between the two countries totalled 8.2 billion euros
(10 billion dolars) in 2005.
France also plays a leading role in foreign direct investment in
Turkey with 2.1 billion dollars (1.6 billion euros) last year and 328
million dollars (260 million euros) in the first seven months of 2006.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress
