STATUE HONORING MASSACRED ARMENIANS STOLEN

United Press International
Oct 15 2006

A bronze statue honoring the memory of Armenians killed in Turkey
during World War I has been stolen from its pedestal in a Paris suburb.

The statue stood in front of the train station in Chaville. It
disappeared late Friday or early Saturday, the BBC reported.

Investigators are unsure if the motive was financial or political. The
660-pound bronze statue is worth a lot of money as scrap metal but the
theft also occurred immediately after a vote in the French parliament
to make denying the Armenian genocide a crime.

Police say there was no vandalism apart from the taking of the statue
and no graffiti or other hints of political purpose.

Turkey has objected strongly to the proposed French law, which
must still pass the upper house of parliament and be signed by the
president.