TURKISH MPS WARN FRENCH COUNTERPARTS OVER ARMENIAN GENOCIDE BILL
Anatolia news agency, Ankara
10 May 06
Paris, 10 May: A Turkish parliamentary delegation met on Wednesday
[10 May] French National Assembly Speaker Jean-Louis Debre.
Turkish Parliamentary delegation, comprising Mehmet Dulger and Musa
Sivacioglu from Justice and Development Party (AKP); and Onur Oymen
and Gulsun Bilgehan Toker from the main opposition Republican People’s
Party (CHP), is currently in Paris to lobby for rejection or withdrawal
of the bill which would make “the denial” of the so-called Armenian
genocide a crime.
Following their meeting with Debre, the Turkish delegation met French
parliament foreign affairs commission chairman Edouard Balladur.
Speaking to AA [Anatolia] correspondent following the meetings,
CHP MP Onur Oymen said, “we have explained the harsh reaction of the
Turkish people. We have attracted the attention to the calls in Turkey
to boycott French goods.
We had the opportunity to convey them that relations would be harmed
in case the bill becomes a law.”
Meetings of the Turkish delegation will continue on Thursday.
Turkish parliamentarians will make references to previous statements
of the French executives and historians that the “parliaments can
not write history and the history should be left to historians” and
want French parliamentarians to be consistent with their previous
statements.
Proposal of the Socialist Party will be discussed on 18 May. The bill
should be approved in the Senate in order to become a law.