EUROPE’S ENLARGEMENT COMMISSIONER HAS DENOUNCED THE BILL

EuroNews
Oct 12 2006

This comes barely six months before French elections and amid a climate
of strong French voter opposition to Turkey’s potential future EU
entry. France’s Armenian community numbers around 500,000.

President Jacques Chirac at a commemoration ceremony recently said
he believes Turkish acceptance of the country’s role in the deaths
ought to be a condition for its European Union membership.

When these negotiations began a year ago, it was not a pre-condition.

Chirac said all countries grow by coming to terms with their dramas
and errors. EU enlargement spokesperson Krisztina Nagy, in Brussels
made the European stance clear: "For the concrete framework for the
negotiations with Turkey, the European Council has taken a decision,
and this decision does not include the recognition of the Armenian
genocide as a criterion for accession for Turkey." The European
Commission warned France that it could hinder efforts to end decades
of dispute over the killings. Nagy said: "It is not up to law to
write history."