MESROP MUTAFIAN: IF ARMENIAN BILL IS PLACED ON PARLIAMENT’S AGENDA, TURKISH-FRENCH TRADE CONTACTS WILL BE DAMAGED

Noyan Tapan
Armenians Today
May 15 2007

ISTANBUL, MAY 15, NOYAN TAPAN – ARMENIANS TODAY. Armenian Patriarch
of Constantinople Archbishop Mesrop Mutafian attached importance
to Armenians’ being represented at Majlis. In his interview to the
Zaman Turkish daily the Patriarch said that the time to enlarge and
develop contacts with Armenia and Armenian Diaspora has already come
and Turkey and Armenia should organize mutual visits of journalists,
intellectuals, youth and NGOs.

Speaking about French President Nicolas Sarkozy’s statement about
Turkey, Mesrop Mutafian said: "Our respectable Prime Minister Recep
Tayyip Erdogan, EU Commissioner for Enlargement Oli Ren, as well as I
hope that Sarkozy will calm down after taking president’s office. Trade
contacts between France and our state are at rather a high level. And
if the bill on the Genocide is again placed on the agenda, these
relations will appear in complicated and difficult condition."

To recap, as early as during the preelection campaign Sarkozy had
promised to hamper Turkey’s membership to EU, as well as to struggle
against any attempt to deny the Armenian Genocide.