FRENCH HISTORIAN’S TURKISH CITIZENSHIP APPROVED
By Cihan News Agency
Zaman, Turkey
Dec 27 2006
Jean Michel Thibaux, a French historian, has had his citizenship
application approved by the Turkish Ministry of Internal Affairs.
Thibaux accepted an academic position offered by Turkey’s Akdeniz
University and declared he would become a Turkish citizen in response
to the Armenian genocide bill approved in the French Parliament in
October 2005.
After his application process began at the birth registration office
in Konya, Thibaux’s application was first accepted by the Population
Register Directorate General before being passed to the Interior
Ministry.
The Ministry of Internal Affairs has approved the application, but
it still requires the approval of the Turkish Council of Ministers
and President Sezer.
Mr. Thibaux’s new name will be Atakan Turk, the Turkish name he
has chosen, following publication of the decree in the parliament’s
Official Gazette.
"I protest the trivial politics of the French on the Armenians. My
home will be Turkey if I am accepted as Turkish citizen," Thibaux
previously remarked in an interview.