US Urges France to Promote Discussion
By Selcuk Gultasli, Brussels
Saturday, October 21, 2006
zaman.com

Zaman, Turkey
Oct 21 2006

The United States has expressed it views on the Armenian genocide
legislation criminalizing the denial of the issue, noting that it
did not make sense.

Washington, which has taken a firm stance against the regulation,
called on Paris "not to take sides but to promote the debate in Turkey
and the dialogue between Turkey and Armenia."

Fried Meets Reporters

U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for European Affairs Daniel Fried
spoke on Friday in Brussels to a small group of reporters, including
some from Zaman.

Asked by a Zaman reporter to assess the bill, he said "this is a very
intricate matter, and it deserves a comprehensive answer."

Noting that French President Jacques Chirac had sounded his concerns
about the bill, Fried said, "We believe those concerns to be right
ones," and he emphasized that the U.S. governments never described
the events of 1915 as "genocide."

"This doesn’t mean that we belittle or deny the mass killings that
took place in 1915. President Bush has always accentuated his grief
caused by the events" said Fried.

Fried emphasized that forbidding any discussion about the issue made
no sense and said "Every country has parts in its history that it
is not proud of. For instance, slavery, the maltreatment of American
Indians, and the gathering of Japanese-origin American citizens into
camps during World War II are such examples from my country."

Fried also said that his country discusses all such subjects
transparently just the way it has to be in modern societies and Turkey
should be encouraged to do so as well.

Warning that "the French bill is not going to promote discussion,"
Fried uttered that the responsibility of other countries involved
were to foster the air of discussion in Turkey and the efforts for
dialogue between Turkey and Armenia.

Also calling on France "to promote dialogue instead of taking sides,"
he pointed out that the subject in Turkey was already being discussed
and Turkish intellectuals had started adopting different angles to
evaluate the events of 1915.

It was very unusual of Fried to call on both the Turkish and Armenian
side to look at the 1915 events "with pain but honestly."

Also touching on the Cyprus matter, Fried said they hoped that a
train wreck would not occur between Turkey and the European Union
and considered it a positive development that none of the parties
had rejected the Finnish plan yet.

Praising the president of Turkish Cyprus Mehmet Ali Talat’s efforts
toward a solution, Fried never mentioned Tassos Papadopoulos, the
president of Greek Cyprus.