FRENCH GOVERNMENT DOES NOT SUPPORT THE BILL, POUDADE

Anatolian Times, Turkey
Nov 6 2006

MERSIN – French Ambassador to Ankara Paul Poudade said that the French
government is not supporting the bill criminalizing the denial of
so-called Armenian genocide and qualified it "unnecessary and with
contents of polemic".

Poudade met today Mersin Governor Huseyin Aksoy in order to thank for
the Turkish public’s hospitality shown to the French people who left
Lebanon during the Israeli attacks, and arrived at Mersin to proceed
to France afterwards.

Upon a question during the visit, Poudade noted that the bill in
question was unnecessary and related to polemic. "I believe that
this bill will not pass through the French senate. We need to leave
this issue to historians. Our government does not support the bill",
Poudade expressed.

On the other hand, Governor Aksoy said that he did not desire the
bill to be approved in the senate.

"A re-location which happened under the conditions of the day can
not be perceived as a genocide. Moreover, it does not match with the
genocide definition of the United Nations", Aksoy added.

Governor Aksoy also stressed that they had assisted the transfer of
approximately 10 thousand people from Lebanon, including 1,025 French
men and women. Aksoy added that such an assistance was a social duty
and an item of Turkish tradition.