TURK HOUSE RAPS ‘GENOCIDE’ BILL

Gulf Times, Qatar
Oct 18 2006

ANKARA: Turkey’s parliament yesterday backed a declaration condemning
the French National Assembly’s approval of a draft bill that would
make it a crime to deny Armenians suffered genocide by Ottoman Turks
in 1915.

But the government stopped short of taking measures against French
interests and companies, aware this could harm Turkey’s economy more
than France’s.

Diplomats say the genocide bill, approved by the lower house last
Thursday, is unlikely to become law due to resistance from the upper
chamber, the Senate and President Jacques Chirac.

Turkish lawmakers said much damage had already been done.

"Naturally, approval of the draft by the French parliament will
inflict irreparable damage on political, economic and military
relations between Turkey and France," said the declaration which had
the backing of all political parties.

It said Armenia would pay a "heavy price" for using lobbies in France
and in other countries against Turkey, although it did not say what
that might entail.

Turkey has no diplomatic relations with Armenia due to the tiny
ex-Soviet republic’s occupation of territory belonging to Ankara’s
Turkic-speaking ally Azerbaijan.

France is home to Europe’s largest Armenian diaspora.

Ankara denies Armenians’ claims they suffered a systematic genocide in
Turkey during World War I, saying both Christian Armenians and Muslim
Turks died in large numbers in a partisan conflict that accompanied
the break-up of the Ottoman Empire.

In yesterday’s debate in the Turkish parliament, Foreign Minister
Abdullah Gul said the "baseless" Armenian claims were nothing more
than political propaganda.

"We hope this bill stops halfway and that the French come to their
senses," Gul said.

He said the French bill violated the principle of free speech, a key
requirement of the EU, which Turkey hopes to join. He said Ankara
would fight the bill in international courts if it ever became law
in France. – Reuters