National Post (Canada)
October 13, 2006 Friday
Toronto Edition

Franco-Turkish relations sour over new law

by David Rennie, The Daily Telegraph

BRUSSELS – The French parliament triggered a fresh crisis yesterday
in Turkey’s relations with Europe by approving a bill that would make
it an offence punishable by jail to deny Armenians suffered a
genocide at the hands of the Ottoman Turks.

The Turkish Foreign Ministry said the vote in the French Assemblee
Nationale had dealt "a heavy blow" to bilateral relations, while the
European Union said the bill could interfere with Turkish ambitions
to join the European bloc.

Turkey denies that massacres of Armenians between 1915 and 1923
amounted to genocide, saying large numbers of Turks and Armenians
died in a civil war.

Ali Babacan, Turkey’s Economics Minister, said it was too soon to
know whether the Turkish public would heed calls from nationalist
groups to boycott French goods.

"As the government, we are not encouraging that, but this is the
people’s decision," he said. "I cannot say [the vote] will not have
any consequences."

The Socialist-backed law was widely criticized in Turkey as another
attempt by European politicians to place obstacles in the path of
Ankara’s painful progress toward EU membership. Polls have shown that
60% of the French are opposed to Turkey joining the bloc.

France would impose a one-year prison term and a 45,000-euro fine on
anyone denying the Armenian genocide, the same penalty that is
imposed for denying the Nazi Holocaust.

The vote came ahead of French presidential and parliamentary
elections, in which the 400,000-strong Armenian community in France
will form a formidable voter bloc.

The bill does not have government support and it seems likely to fall
in the upper house, the Senate.

Both Jacques Chirac, the French President, and Segolene Royal, the
Socialist presidential front-runner, say Turkey must acknowledge the
genocide of the Armenians before joining the EU.

Nicolas Sarkozy, the conservative front-runner, is opposed to
Turkey’s EU entry under any condition.