ITN News, UK
Oct 13 2006

Turkey reels after French genocide vote

9.29, Fri Oct 13 2006

Turkey’s EU ambitions are in doubt after France voted to make it a
crime to deny that Armenians suffered genocide at the hands of
Ottoman Turks during World War One. (Pic: Reuters)

The vote has not been supported by the French government and the
upper house is not expected to ratify it, but Turkey has warned the
damage has already been done to relations between the two countries.

Turkey continues to deny accusations of the genocide of some 1.5
million Armenians.

And it argues the French vote has exposed anti-Turkey feelings which
will undermine pro-EU liberals and bolster Turkish nationalists.

But French Parliament member Roland Blum said he thought the vote
would rectify a double standard in recognising parts of history.

He said: "This is not possible to have two categories of genocide,
Jewish genocide which has been always condemned while Armenian
genocide has been condemned only in some cases."

France is believed to have the largest Armenian immigrant community
in western Europe, with up to half a million people of Armenian
descent living there.