Associated Press
Oct 13 2006

Turkish Group Boycotts Some French Goods

ISTANBUL, Turkey – The Turkish Consumers Union announced a limited
boycott of French goods Friday in reaction to a French law that would
make it a crime to deny that mass killings of Armenians in Turkey was
genocide.

The non-governmental group, which seeks to educate and advocate for
Turkish consumers, said the boycott would begin with the French oil
products company Total, and that the union would publicize a new
French company for Turks to boycott each week.

"From today on, every week we are going to boycott a French brand,
and show our reaction in a language that France can understand,"
group chairman Bulent Deniz said.

"By adopting the bill on making denial of the so-called Armenian
genocide a crime, the French National Assembly expressed its
opposition to freedom of thought."

He said the boycott would continue until the law was defeated or
annulled.

Total trade between the two countries last year stood at nearly $10
billion. Turkey imported goods from France worth nearly $6 billion.

On Thursday, French lawmakers _ in a 106-19 vote _ approved a bill
that would criminalize denying the mass killings of Armenians by
Ottoman Turks around the time of World War I amounted to genocide,
but the bill still needs to be approved by the French Senate and the
president to become law.

Turks were outraged by the decision, which was widely viewed as a
hostile measure. The European Union on Friday said the bill was
"counterproductive."

Turkey acknowledges that great numbers of Armenians were killed in
fighting and mass expulsions, but does not accept the label of
genocide.

In Istanbul, customers at some retail centers were being urged by
salespeople not to purchase French goods as a reaction to the French
lawmakers’ vote.

Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan had called on Turks Thursday to
be moderate in their response, and the Foreign Ministry said it would
do everything it could to ensure the law was not passed.

On Friday, a Turkish parliamentary commission charged with EU
harmonization called on France to reject or retract the law. "Our
commission condemns this unjust decision and hopes that France will
succumb to common sense and turn back from this mistake," the
statement said.