PRESIDENTIAL HOPEFUL ROYAL SAYS TURKEY MUST ACKNOWLEDGE ARMENIAN KILLINGS AS GENOCIDE
By Emmanuel Georges-Picot, Associated Press Writer

Associated Press Worldstream
October 11, 2006 Wednesday

French presidential hopeful Segolene Royal said Wednesday that Turkey
must recognize the mass killing of Armenians in the early 20th Century
as a genocide if it hopes to join the European Union.

Royal, a Socialist, also said she was in favor of a bill to go before
France’s parliament Thursday that would make it a crime to deny that
the killings amounted to genocide.

Turkish anger over the bill forced a delay in the initial debate, which
had been set for May, as lawmakers caved in to warnings by Turkish
authorities that bilateral ties would suffer if the bill became law.

Turkish Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul, commenting Wednesday on
the bill, said France would compromise its values if the measure
became law.

"We’ve done everything we can," Gul said. "If this passes, Turkey will
lose nothing. But France will first lose Turkey … it will turn into
a country that throws people in jail for expressing their thoughts, for
expressing their ideas, for stating what is in historical documents."

Royal, a lawmaker hoping for the Socialist Party’s nomination as 2007
presidential candidate, aligned herself with the official stance
that Turkey must recognize the killings as genocide if it wants
EU membership.

"It is obvious that if Turkey wants to confirm its candidacy and one
day enter Europe, it is obvious that it must recognize the Armenian
genocide," she said at a news conference called to set out her
positions on Europe.

She added that she was for the legislation going before parliament.

"We have no lessons to give anyone and, at the same time, something
has to be done."

On other issues, Royal called for Europe to immediately establish aid
to the Palestinian territories, and supported continued diplomatic
efforts to counter fears that Iran is looking to develop nuclear arms.

Meanwhile, about 40 Turkish demonstrators gathered at the Place de la
Concorde, facing the National Assembly, to denounce the bill making
it a crime to deny Armenian genocide.

"The Armenian genocide is an imperialist lie," said Yalcin Buyukdagh,
who identified himself as the presidential counsel of the Workers
Party in Turkey.

"If France votes ‘yes’ to this law, it will have officially taken a
position as an enemy of Turkey," he said.

In Ankara, lawmakers, looking to retaliate against Paris, discussed
proposals to recognize an "Algerian genocide" during France’s colonial
rule there, which ended in 1962 after a brutal war.

Armenians claim that as many as 1.5 million of their ancestors were
killed between 1915-1923 in an organized campaign to force them out
of eastern Turkey. However, Turkey contends that a large number of
people died in civil unrest during the collapse of the Ottoman Empire.

French President Jacques Chirac visited the Armenian capital of
Yerevan the first by a French president less than two weeks ago and
urged Turkey to acknowledge a genocide.

Associated Press Writer Emily Withrow in Paris contributed to this
report.