TURKEY FREEZES MILITARY TIES WITH FRANCE – AGENCY

Reuters, UK
Nov 16 2006

ANKARA, Nov 15 (Reuters) – Turkey has frozen all military ties with
France in protest over the French parliament’s support for a bill
making it a crime to deny claims of an Armenian genocide, the state
Anatolian news agency said on Wednesday.

The National Assembly voted last month in favour of the bill,
triggering angry protests and threats of a trade boycott in Turkey,
which strongly rejects the claims that Ottoman Turks committed genocide
against Armenians during World War One.

The bill is unlikely to become law due to opposition from the Senate
and President Jacques Chirac, but Turkish leaders have said the
National Assembly’s move will harm bilateral ties.

"Relations with France in the military field have been suspended,"
Anatolian quoted General Ilker Basbug, head of Turkey’s land forces,
as saying.

"High level visits between the two countries are not being made,"
added Basbug, who is number two in the hierarchy of Turkey’s powerful
armed forces. He gave no further details.

The French foreign ministry declined to comment.

French defence firms view NATO member Turkey, which has a fast-growing
economy, as a lucrative market for their hardware.

The Armenian issue is very sensitive in Turkey, which denies any
genocide took place but says large numbers of both Muslim Turks and
Christian Armenians were killed in a partisan conflict that raged on
Turkish soil as the Ottoman Empire collapsed.

France, which holds elections next year, is home to the largest
Armenian diaspora in Europe.

Chirac said during a recent visit to Yerevan that Turkey must accept
the genocide before it can join the European Union.

Turkey began EU entry talks last year but the large Muslim country’s
accession bid faces growing opposition from some existing member
states, including France.