NTV MSNBC, Turkey
Oct 13 2006

Genocide bill betrays France’s own values: Arinc

There is no evidence to suggest that the Ottoman Empire carried out a
systematic genocide of Armenians, a leading Turkish historian said
Friday.

Güncelleme: 16:34 TSÝ 13 Ekim 2006 CumaANKARA – By making the denial
of the alleged massacre of Armenians by the Ottoman Empire a criminal
offence, France has betrayed its on principles, the speaker of the
Turkish parliament said Friday.

Saying that it was a great disgrace for the French parliament to have
passed such legislation, parliamentary speaker Bulent Arinc said that
the Turkish parliament would probably approve a resolution formally
condemning the decision.

On Thursday, the lower house of the French parliament approved
legislation that foresees fines of 45,000 euros and up to one year in
prison for those convicted of denying that the so-called Armenian
genocide took place.

`This is a big shame for France, and it has betrayed its own values
if any,’ Arinc said `It made this decision, violating all its
principles.’

Another to criticise the vote was Doctor Yusuf Halacoglu, the
chairman of the Turkish History Society. Speaking at a meeting of
representatives of Turkish non-government organisations to discuss
the new French legislation, Halacoglu said there was no indication or
document proving that Turks committed genocide.

In order to prove such allegations, there must be an open intention
to annihilate in a genocide, he said. However what had been
experienced by the Armenians during the Ottoman era was a relocation,
Halacoglu said.

`Not only the Ottoman documents but also the reports of the US
consuls indicated that these people were paid some allowances during
relocation,’ he said. `You won’t allocate appropriations to people
whom you want to annihilate. So it is impossible to define as a
genocide legally what the Armenians had experienced during World War
One.’