NATO UNAFFECTED BY TURKEY-FRANCE MILITARY ROW: OFFICIALS

Agence France Presse — English
November 16, 2006 Thursday

NATO’s operations will not be affected by a decision by the Turkish
army to suspend its military relations with France, officials at the
defence alliance said Thursday.

Turkish army chief General Ilker Basbug made the announcement late
Wednesday in retaliation to a French parliamentary bill which would
make it a crime to deny that the World War I massacre of Armenians
by Ottoman Turks constituted genocide.

"It’s a bilateral issue. It won’t affect their relations at NATO,"
an official in Brussels said.

Both French and Turkish troops were operating in Kabul, he added.

"They’re there today," he stressed.

French and Turkish troops operate side-by-side in the Afghan capital,
under the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF),
combatting a fierce insurgency by Taliban rebels.

However, General Basbug told reporters in Ankara that high-level
visits between the two countries had stopped, according to the Turkey’s
semi-official Anatolia news agency.

Turkey has warned that bilateral ties will suffer a great blow if
France adopts the bill, which foresees one year in jail for anyone
who denies that Armenians were the victims of genocide by Ottoman
Turks between 1915-17.

The bill was approved by the lower house of the French parliament last
month but still needs the approval of the Senate and the president
to take effect.

Armenians claim up to 1.5 million of their people were slaughtered
in orchestrated killings during the last years of the Ottoman Empire,
modern Turkey’s predecessor.

But Turkey rejects the use of the term "genocide", saying some 300,000
Armenians died when the Ottoman Empire fell apart, but at least as
many Turks did too.

"This doesn’t concern NATO," a diplomat at the military organisation
agreed. "We don’t foresee any difficulties in the NATO sphere. There
won’t be any impact on the functioning of the Alliance".

Top military officers from NATO and Partner nations were completing
two days of talks in Brussels Thursday, two weeks ahead of a NATO
Summit in Riga, to shape and inform military advice for the North
Atlantic Council.