Anatolian Times, Turkey
May 14 2006
Letter To French M.Ps
ANKARA – ”Members of the Turkish-French Parliamentary Friendship
Group have sent a letter to French parliamentarians in which they
express their objection to the resolution that considers denial of
Armenian genocide a crime”, said Omer Ozyilmaz, the deputy chairman
of the group.
Ozyilmaz told a press conference at the parliament that the mentioned
resolution will be debated at the French parliament in coming days,
and their letter has been sent to French parliament speaker, chairmen
of political groups at the parliament, chairmen of parliamentary
commissions and delegations, dignitaries of the Socialist Party, and
the members of the French-Turkish Friendship Group.
In the letter, Turkish MPs have stressed that it is an unjust move to
define the incidents which occurred during the World War I and which
have not been clarified yet, as ”genocide”, Ozyilmaz noted.
Ozyilmaz said that the letter refers to the joint press conference
that Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and CHP (main opposition
Republican People’s Party) leader Deniz Baykal held last year in
which they announced that Turkish archives will always be open to
historians.
However, Armenia has not responded to Erdogan’s and Baykal’s call
yet, he stated.
Expressing belief that bilateral relations get harmed if this
resolution is adopted at the French parliament, Ozyilmaz said that
historians and researchers are the ones who should actually deal with
this matter.
On the other hand, Ankara Chamber of Commerce (ATO) Chairman Sinan
Aygun sent letters to Jean-Francois Bernardin, president of the
Association of French Chambers of Commerce and Industry (ACFCI), and
Pierre Simon, chairman of the Paris Chamber of Commerce, expressing
his reaction to French draft law which aims to criminalize denial of
so-called Armenian genocide.
In his letters, Aygun stresses that Turkish-French relations should
not be harmed due to populist initiatives of a few irresponsible
politicians.
Aygun notes that an EU member France, which is one of defenders of
freedom of expression, wants to restrict freedom of speech through
this bill, which is a contradiction.