TURKISH PARLIAMENT GIVES UP ALGERIAN GENOCIDE LAW
By Fatih Atik, Ankara

Zaman Online, Turkey
Oct 17 2006

It is not clear just what kind of official retaliatory move Turkey will
take after the French National Assembly adopted a bill on Thursday
that would make it a crime to deny that Turks committed an Armenian
genocide during World War I.

The Turkish Parliament Justice Sub-committee launched studies about a
law proposal that would make it a crime to deny that France committed
genocide in Algeria.

Members of the committee listened to Turkish History Society President
Professor Yusuf Halacoglu and officials from the foreign ministry in
their first meeting yesterday.

Professor Halacoglu provided historical information to the committee
about Armenian violence in Turkey.

Halacoglu claimed that Armenians were freer than Turks during Ottoman
times, recalling that Armenian citizens did not have to perform
compulsory military service until 1876.

The commission will reportedly not accept the proposal that would
make it a crime to deny that France committed genocide in Algeria.

Instead of enacting the law, the Turkish Parliament will prepare a
text in which Turkey’s practices in the field of human rights and
freedoms will be explained.

The commission members decided that the Turkish History Society and
the Foreign Ministry should conduct a detailed study on the Armenian
genocide allegations.

The history of countries that officially recognize an Armenian
genocide will also be examined in this context to see whether such
cases occurred in their own past.

The study will explain the circumstances under which Turkey decided
to deport Armenians in 1915.

The commission members will discuss reports to come from the Turkish
History Society and Foreign Ministry in their second meeting.