Kuwait News Agency, Kuwait
May 8 2006

France still unable to apologize

By our staff writer

Algerian President Abdelaziz Bouteflika has repeated his demand that
France should apologize to Algeria for the “genocidal” colonial rule.

He said this was the only way to turn a chronically ill relationship
into a true friendship. Bouteflika first called for a French apology
in 2004 and repeated the demand again at the same May 8 ceremony a
year ago.

In a speech on Sunday evening, Bouteflika said: “It is clear that
since (independence on) July 5, 1962, each is master in his own house
and there is no question of us applying pressure to obtain what seems
our elementary right: that is to say, a public and solemn apology for
the crime of colonialization committed against our people.

“If we as a people have triumphed over an undiluted colonialism at
the price of unspeakable suffering, it is not to succumb to the
sirens of a one-sided friendship.”

Bouteflika’s speech was made in the eastern town of Guelma at a
ceremony marking the killings of thousands of Algerians who took to
the streets to demand independence.

France occupied the North African country for 132 years, and 1.5
million people were killed in the 1954-1962 Algerian war of
independence.

The call for an apology even sparked protests by some French
rightists, who complained that France should not have allowed
Bouteflika to come to Paris for medical treatment last month.

Although the lower house of the French parliament unanimously
approved a bill on January 18, 2001 which publicly recognizes the
massacre of Armenians in 1915 as genocide, France still refuses to
even apologize for the massacre of Algerian freedom fighters, let
alone recognize it as genocide.

Curiously, the death toll was the same in each incident. Armenians
claim that up to 1.5 million of their kin were slaughtered in
orchestrated killings between 1915 and 1917 as the Ottoman Empire was
falling apart.

The French parliament’s vote on the Armenian massacre won the praise
of many organizations and human rights activists as a brave and
courageous move. However, the French parliament has never held such a
vote on the bloody suppression of the Algerian uprising.

Indeed, some circles in France even regard discussion of the issue as
taboo.

If the French parliament is truly sincere, it should taken the bold
decision to recognize that it committed genocide in Algeria and
apologize.

>From the perspective of history, the genocide in Algeria is all the
more outrageous because it occurred at a time when the world was
beginning to focus on the human rights issue, war crimes, and
genocide, and because it happened after World War Two, when France
itself experienced the Nazi occupation.

Meanwhile, last week, Turkey warned France that bilateral ties would
suffer “irreparable damage” if the National Assembly passes a bill
that would make it a punishable offence to “deny the existence of the
1915 Armenian genocide”.

France is considered one of the great Western democracies and still
uses the `Liberty, equality, brotherhood’ slogan of the 1789 French
Revolution, which inspired many social developments in modern
history. Therefore, why does it not step forward and recognize its
actions in the Algerian war as genocide?

AzerTag, Azerbaijan
May 8 2006

PRESIDENT ALIYEV RECEIVES A DELEGATION LED BY CHAIRMAN OF THE
PAKISTANI SENATE COMMITTEE ON HUMAN RIGHTS
[May 08, 2006, 22:08:07]

President Ilham Aliyev of Azerbaijan on 8 May received the delegation
led by Chairman of the Pakistani Senate Committee on Human Rights
Senator Seyyed Muhammad Zafar.

Presenting the `Best Governed Moslem State’ Award to President Ilham
Aliyev, Senator Seyyed Muhammad Zafar said:

`Your Excellency Mr. President,

By Your permission, I wish to express to our Azerbaijani brothers
deep gratitude for high hospitality, rendered to delegation of
`Pakistan Observer’ since yesterday evening when we have arrived
here. It is a great honor to be here and on behalf of the newspaper
`Pakistan Observer’ to hand over to Your Excellency the authoritative
`Best Governed Muslim State’ Award which the President of the
Azerbaijan Republic has been bestowed on.

Dear Mr. President, this Award has been founded in 2005 by the
newspaper `Pakistan Observer’, possessing wide reader’s audience in
Pakistan, with a view of rendering assistance to development of
efficient management in the Islamic world. As a result of wide
discussions and consultations lead with participation of numerous
experts, analysts, researchers and of some other known people of
Pakistan, the editorial board of the newspaper `Pakistan Observer’
has made a decision on delivery of this Award to Your Excellency’.

Further the guest said:

`The Award is directed on development of efficient management among
the Islamic states. Correct management is the major factor and means
of realization of hopes and wishes of the people connected with more
safe life, skills to take a worthy place among nations of the world,
therefore, the establishment of such Award has been recognized
necessary.

Mr. President, in the internal policy you have undertaken such
grandiose work as reorganization of the state, have achieved
significant successes in strengthening democratic values and carrying
out of reforms in political, economic and social spheres. Among your
valuable merits it is possible to name attraction of people to
participation in the questions representing national interest,
upbringing the feelings of national pride, tolerance, education and
brotherhood. Owing to the steps undertaken by you, the people had
feeling of the unity, considered important for development and
tranquility of any people, established peace and stability.

Thanks to far-sighted policy of the great Heydar Aliyev, who headed
the recently established independent Azerbaijan state, your country
has achieved significant progress in political, economic and social
spheres’.

Senator Seyyed Muhammad Zafar further said:

`Today Azerbaijan can serve as a bright example of distribution of
idea of educational liberalism among the Islamic countries. Tolerance
existing in Azerbaijan between the Islam, Christianity, Judaism and
other religions is worthy admiration. Mr. President, one of Your
significant successes is that in Azerbaijan there are no such
problems as extreme measure and radicalism. It foretells tranquility,
which expects your country in the future. You managed to achieve
national unity in the country. You really deserve to be named as the
fair government.

Mr. President, for us it is great honor to hand over to You this
Award’.

President Ilham Aliyev has expressed gratitude for the Award. Having
noted, that Pakistan is one of the closest allies of Azerbaijan in
the world, he ascertained, that relations between two countries are
high level. President Ilham Aliyev has highly estimated complete
support by Pakistan of the fair position of Azerbaijan connected with
aggression of Armenia against the country and the Armenia-Azerbaijan,
Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.

MSNBC
May 8 2006

Turkey recalls officials for talks

Turkey said on Monday it had recalled its ambassadors from France and
Canada “for consultations” in a diplomatic dispute over moves to
recognise Armenian claims of genocide during the first world war.

Ankara’s anger has been stirred by a decision of the French
parliament to debate a draft law later this month that would make
denial of the Armenian genocide claim a crime similar to denial of
the Holocaust. Stephen Harper, Canada’s prime minister, also recently
backed Armenia’s genocide claim. Both France and Canada have
substantial Armenian communities.

Namik Tan, a spokesman for the Turkish foreign ministry, said the
ambassadors had been recalled to Ankara “for a short period for
consultations regarding recent developments over the baseless
Armenian genocide claims in France and Canada”.

The withdrawal of the envoys threatens to further sour relations
between Ankara and Paris, which are already strained because of
French resistance to Turkey’s ambition to join the European Union.

Armenia claims that up to 1.5m civilians were massacred by Ottoman
troops as the empire collapsed starting in 1915, and that the
massacres amounted to genocide because they were the result of
deliberate Ottoman policy. The Armenians were citizens of the empire
at the time.

Turkey denies the genocide claim. It says hundreds of thousands of
Armenians, as well as a similar number of Turkish Muslims, died in
partisan fighting, famine and forced removal. It also insists the
mass killings cannot be blamed on the republic of Turkey, which was
created in 1923.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

Union of Councils for Jews in the Former Soviet Union, DC
May 8 2006

Window on Eurasia: Aggressiveness on the Rise in Russia, Soviet-Era
Dissident Says

(May 8, 2006)
Paul Goble

Tallinn, May 8 – Grigoriy Pomerants, one of the oldest and most
prominent of surviving Soviet-era dissidents, says that hostility and
agression toward members of other groups is now on the rise in
Russian society, the combined product of the Soviet past, the Russian
present, and certain international trends as well.

In an interview published in last week’s „Kul’tura,’ Pomerants, who
was born shortly after the 1917 revolution and who experienced both
the horrors of Stalinism and the struggles of the samizdat movement,
said that „the roots of xenophobia and national intolerance go back a
long way’
( t=news&id=42789 ).

Asked how it was possible that fascism could re-emerge in a country
„which had defeated fascism more than 60 years ago,’ Pomeryants
pointed out that while Stalin fought fascism, the Soviet dictator
also had „carried out [his own] racial policy,’ one that led not only
to the deportation of whole peoples but to the anti-Semitic Doctors’
plot.

Unfortunately, he continued, „these actions of Stalin found a
response in the people’ just as did his war against Hitler. But the
real reason that extremists in Russia employ Nazi symbols, Pomeryants
aid, is that Aleksandr Barkashov, thee leader of Russian National
Unity (RNE) is „too stupid to be able to think up something new.’

The RNE leader simply picked up „’Mein Kampf’ and said: ‚Hitler’s
only mistake is that he underrated the Slavs. In everything else, he
was right.’ But now this is being applied more broadly: They beat the
Tajiks, who never bothered anythong, they beat peaceful Senegalese,
and they beat Vietnamese.’

But if the symbols of this new aggressiveness are very much on public
view, Pomeryants argued, the sources of this aggression are less
obvious at least to most observers. And in his interview, the former
dissident identifies three developments that he suggests have played
the greatest role.

The first reason, he suggests, is the collapse of hope and the rise
of radical income differentiation in post-Soviet Russia. Twenty years
ago, Pomeryants said, people in the Soviet Union were filled with
hope that they could overcome the past and build a bright future
easily and quickly.

But in the intervening period, these hopes have perished. Many of the
old cadres occupy senior positions. Income differential is
increasing. And many Russians now look with envy at those newly rich
people who travel about in Mercedes cars and „cover them with dirt’
in the process.

Not in a position to strike back at those in power, Pomeryants
continued, many Russians and especially the young have transferred
their anger to and taken out their aggression on those who are the
most defenseless in Russian society — non-Russians and foreigners.

The second was the failure of former Soviet president Mikhail
Gorbachev and other reformers to address ethnic issues on the
assumption that economic change would solve all of them. Indeed,
Pomeryants argued, much of what is going on now reflects the decision
of those people to „look through their fingers at the [February 1988]
pogrom in Sumgait.’

„Gorbachev naively thought that it would be possible to carry out
social reforms while leaving national ones for latter. The tension of
nationality relations was then hidden, and no one in the Politburo
was dealing with the extraordinarily ramified set of nationality
relations’ in the country.

When Azerbaijanis massacred Armenians in Sumgait in response to
Armenian demands that Nagorono-Karabakh be transferred from
Azerbaijani to Armenian control, Pomeryants noted, Moscow sent
soldiers „without bullets’ in their guns who were rapidly driven off
by a local population armed with „stones.’

„That was the signal,’ Pomeryants said, „whoever could, should go
ahead.’ And as a result, he continued, „’the Chechen project’ arose.
Had Sumgait not taken place [or had Moscow responded differently],
the Chechens would not have begun anything. They are not madmen.’

„But the signal was given,’ Pomeryants noted, „and [the Chechens
along with many other people] saw that power was lying in the
streets. The Chechen war with its horrific losses also unleashed the
beast in men. This too unleashed passions.’

And the third and especially dispiriting source of this trend,
Pomeryants said, is „a general crisis of civilization’ around the
world which he argued is connected with „a loss of values.’ As long
as force or the threat of an attack from outside was around, this
crisis was not much in evidence, he continued.

But now, in many cases, and especially in Russia, „there are no
values in the name of which people should life except for those
calling for immediate satisfaction’ – and such „values,’ if they are
indeed worthy of the name, do little to rein in human passios of even
the basest kind.

Asked why Russia might be especially vulnerable to what he described
as a worldwide trend, Pomeryants pointed to three reasons: the Soviet
past in which so many of Russia’s traditional values were destroyed,
the various cataclysms the Russian people have experienced over the
last century, and even the country’s enormous size.

Concerning this last point, Pomeryants noted that „after Ivan the
Teriblee, Russia was not able to return to normal for the entire 17th
century. [But over the same period] small Preotestan countries even
when they lived badly were more peaceful. And now they live very well
– in Norway, they do not [even] steal the profits from oil.’

Flight International
May 8 2006

Armavia A320 crashes on second approach to Sochi

DAVID KAMINSKI-MORROW & DAVID LEARMOUNT/LONDON

The crew of the Armavia Airbus A320 that crashed into the Black Sea
close to Sochi in southern Russia on 3 May was attempting to make its
second approach to the airport in poor weather conditions. All 105
passengers and eight crew members were killed.

Armavia says the crew of flight U8 967, operating from Yerevan,
Armenia, to Sochi, had planned to divert to the Georgian capital
Tbilisi as weather reported for the destination was below minima, but
information about improved conditions led them to change their minds
and attempt a landing.

Russia’s transport ministry says the weather conditions at Sochi did
not meet the minimum criteria of `100m’ (330ft) cloud ceiling and
1,500m visibility. The crew abandoned its initial approach to runway
06, which has an instrument landing system, before opting to make a
second attempt using runway 02 where visibility was reported to be
better.

Meteorological data from the Sochi airport weather station at 02:00
local time indicate the presence of cumulonimbus clouds, but only
light precipitation, the wind light and variable, and the cloudbase
at 600ft with mist below it.

The ministry says air traffic control lost contact with the aircraft
while it was manoeuvring to position for the second approach at about
02:15, and at that time the aircraft was operating at a height of
around 920ft and an airspeed of 135kt (250km/h). The 11-year-old A320
hit the surface of the Black Sea about 6km (3nm) offshore, and there
had been no emergency call from the crew. Russia’s transport minister
Igor Levitin has reportedly cautioned that a recovery effort will be
difficult. He says the bulk of the wreckage is lying at a depth of
around 680m.

The aircraft had accumulated about 28,200 flight hours and 14,400
cycles.

les/2006/05/09/Navigation/177/206443/Armavia+A320+ crashes+on+second+approach+to+Sochi.html
From: Baghdasarian

ITAR-TASS, Russia
May 8 2006

Search for flight recorders from crashed Airbus-320 continues

SOCHI, May 8 (Itar-Tass) — The search for the flight recorders from
the crashed Armenian Airbus-320 in the Black Sea off Sochi has not
stopped despite rough seas.

`Specialists will be examining the bottom at the place where the
plane crashed with the help of sonar till night. French specialists
will sail off into the sea tomorrow morning, at 7 a.m. Moscow time.
They have already arrived in Sochi with equipment for a more precise
search,’ an official at the search operation headquarters told
Itar-Tass on Monday.

The specialists plan to examine the seabed at a death of 450-800
metres where a large number of the plane’s fragments and the `black
boxes’ are lying.

The area where the debris are scattered is quite big and the French
equipment will help to distinguish between the plane’s fragments and
personal belongings of the passengers.

Earlier, a deep-water apparatus, Kalmar, traced four unidentified
objects at the crash scene at the depth of 450 meters.

`Four objects have been traced at the depth of 450 meters. They are
being identified. The objects were found by a hydro-radar system of
the Kalmar apparatus operated from the Zaliv towboat,’ Sergei
Biryukov, Executive Director of the company Tetis Pro that designed
the apparatus, told Itar-Tass.

Flight recorders used on aircraft of the Airbus-320 type withstand
the depth of up to 6,000 meters for 30 days, experts from the French
air crash investigation bureau said on Sunday.

They said that flight recorders’ radio beacons keep working during
the 30-day period.

One of the flight recorders registers flight parameters, including
the speed, height and direction of the flight and the autopilot
operation, each second. The other gadget records conversations in the
cockpit.

Each flight recorder weighs 10 kilograms, including a seven-kilogram
armoured casing for the gadget. The casing can withstand water
pressure at a depth of 6,000 meters, the temperature of 1,100 degrees
Celsius, and the compression of 2.2 tonnes.

The French experts think that flight recorders from the Armenian
Airbus-320 are lying at a depth of 680 meters.

The bureau retrieved flight recorders from the depth of over 1,000
meters in the Red Sea in January 2004, when an Egyptian plane crashed
near the Sharm-el-Sheikh resort. The rescuers were using a Scorpio
deep-water apparatus.

A technical commission investigating the Sochi air crash, which is
led by the CIS Interstate Aviation Committee, has asked French
experts to help find A-320 flight recorders.

Russian Transport Minister Igor Levitin said, `The Frenchmen have
appropriate equipment and they are ready to quickly bring it to the
crash scene.’

Of 113 people who were abroad the plane, 51 bodies have been found so
far. On the fifth day after the crash, specialists say chances that
the others will be found are quite small.

The Airbus A-320 of the Armenian airline Armavia plunged into the
Black Sea as it was making a landing manoeuvre in the early hours of
May 3. The accident claimed the lives of 113 people.

Zaman, Turkey
May 8 2006

Algeria Seeks Apology for Massacre, France Occupied with Armenian Law

By Ali Ihsan Aydin, Algeria
Published: Monday, May 08, 2006
zaman.com

Today, Europe is celebrating the anniversary of one of the most
important events of the 20th century, their defeat of the Nazis on
May 8 1945 signaling the end of World War II.

Contrary to the excitement of victory won 61 years ago, France is
facing the serious allegation of conducting a massacre. While, on 8
May 1945 Europe was able to breathe a sigh of relief, Algeria mourned
as it continued to remain under French colonization. Algerians fought
along side the French in the fight against the German Nazis together
in hopes of gaining their freedom, however, their dreams were dashed
when they returned to home after the war to find French soldiers
murdering Algerian survivors.

Algerians have been commemorating May 8 for years and call for “the
acceptance of genocide and an apology” from France. France, in
pursuit of version of history, continues to say, “Let’s leave the
past to the historians,” in response to these calls. The Paris
administration, which made the Armenians’ genocide allegations into a
law in 2001, is attempting to go one step further and introduce a law
to punish those who deny the genocide. The discussions to start in
French Parliament on May 18 will be conducted under the shadow of the
Algerian massacre.

Zaman went to Algeria on the 61st anniversary of the massacre and
spoke to witnesses of the event and to local historians. Witnesses to
this event are now in their 90s, however, they remember how the
French colonial administration incinerated thousands of Algerians in
lime ovens and dumped their bodies into the rivers. Despite the calls
for apology, France passed a law praising colonialism last year,
further infuriating the Algerians. The opposition al-Islah Party in
Algeria has taken new steps taken in a reaction to Paris’s attitude,
by submitting to parliament a proposed law condemning French
colonialism and considering it a crime. Al-Islah Party
Secretary-General Dr .Mohammed Djahid Younsi, speaking to Zaman,
stressed that colonizing countries must apologize and pay
compensation to people they colonized. France is double-dealing,
according to the general manager of the French newspaper published by
French Courrier d’Algerie, Ahmet Toumiat.

Algerian historian Professor Mohammed El-Corso speaks out against the
understanding of justice in France: “It is a double standard that
France replies, ‘Let’s leave the past to the historians,’ to the
calls by Algerians, while passing a law for the Armenians. There is
such an odd understanding of justice in France. It is as though some
things have become the property of France.”

Algeria sent its young men to fight for France’s freedom against the
Nazi occupation in Europe; in return it was promised independence.
The Algerian people believed they would be freed as soon as France
was released from the grip of Nazi occupation, and the fall of
Germany was welcomed with a festival atmosphere in Algeria. Algerians
organized marches on May 8 to celebrate their victory and to remember
the promise given to them. The demonstrations held in the cities of
Setif, Guelma and Kherrata in the east of the country turned bloody
when 40-45,000 Algerians, according to Algeria and the United States,
and 20,000, according to France, were murdered within a week.

Hamla was 19 in 1945 and one of the organizers of the march in
Guelma. “We wanted to celebrate the victory and remind the Americans,
British and Russian people their promise of independence,” says
Hamla, clearly remembering those days. Hamla welcomed us into his
modest home in an Algerian suburb, and he said they flew the Algerian
People’s Party flag along side French, British, American and Russian
flags during the march, and shouted slogans of freedom. Hamla says
they confronted the French Gendarmerie Units waiting for them and
violence broke out when the gendarme began shooting at civilians.

A state of emergency was declared and the French army began to
massacre local Algerians. “We were gullible then and we did not think
the French would kill us. They betrayed us and the other allies
forgot their promises also,” says a mournful Hamla, remembering that
French soldiers killed ten of thousands of Algerians. While some of
the bodies were buried in mass graves outside the city, some of them
were burned in furnaces so not to distress the French governor with
the smell of rotting corpses, which Ben Hamla likened to the Nazi
“death chambers.” The lime furnaces outside Guelma were turned into
death furnaces, where thousands of Algerians were brought to die,
their bodies were completely incinerated. We smelt the burning
corpses”, Hamla added.

‘I couldn’t believe my eyes when I returned to my country’

Said, who withheld his surname, was 17 at that time he joined the
march in Setif, and he says murdered Algerians were carried in trucks
to Kherrata River and then dumped. “They threw even some living
people into the trucks”, says the old Algerian remembering those
days, adding that France is still his “enemy.” Said says they stoned
the French soldiers that started firing at them and tried to lower
the Algerian flag. “They killed anybody they saw in the streets, and
they raped our women. They even stabbed a pregnant woman in the
stomach. I saw all these events”, says Said, remembering that French
soldiers confiscated guns and sharp tools from the organizers of the
marches to prevent any incidents of violence.

Amar Aliat, 98, whom we came across wearing traditional clothes and
wandering on the road where the march took place in Setif, is a war
veteran that fought for French independence in 1939. Ali said they
were made to wear French military uniforms and he remembers listening
to a speech made by French commanders telling Algerian soldiers that
Algeria would gain independence if it defeated the Nazis. Ali says
all the shops were closed, and the all streets were empty when they
returned to Setif. General Duval, known as the “Setif Butcher,” in
command of the French army executing the massacres, told the French
in Algeria, “We established peace in ten years. If France does not do
anything now, then a similar difficult situation could happen again
and next time it amy be unsolvable.” Just as, the salvation movement
started in 1954 brought independence to Algeria. Algeria was a French
colony for 130 years before gaining independence in 1962.

TREND Information, Azerbaijan
May 8 2006

Azeri Omb makes statement on 14th year of occupation of Shusha

Source: Trend
Author: S.Agayeva

08.05.2006

Azerbaijani Ombudsman Elmira Suleymanova made a statement on 8 May o
the 14th anniversary of the occupation of Shusha, Trend reports.

The document noted that the territorial integrity of Azerbaijan and
maintenance of Nagorno-Karabakh in the exclusive jurisdiction of
Azerbaijan was numerously confirmed by UN, OSCE, CE and all
countries, while Armenia ignores the international rule of law and
opinion of the international community.

Despite 4 UN Security Council resolutions on unconditional withdrawal
of belligerent troops from the territory of Azerbaijan, Armenia
states its unwillingness to execute them, she underlined.

The Ombudsman underlined that as a result of occupation of Shusha
193 people were killed, 102 became disabled, while 27 industrial and
construction facilities, 103 culture objects, 249 historic monuments
and museums were destroyed.

Suleymanova voiced her hope that world community and international
organizations will support the completion of Armenian aggression
which continues many years, peaceable resolution of the
Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, repatriation of refugees and internally
displaced people (IDPs), rehabilitation of their rights, as well as
sanctions on Armenia.

The statement was sent to the UN Secretary General, UN High
Commissariat n Refugees, UNESCO, the Council of Europe, OSCE and
other instances.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

Azeri Press Agency, Azerbaijan
May 8 2006

Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev awarded Best Governed Muslim
Country prize

[ 08 May 2006 18:25 ]

Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev today received delegation led by
chief of Pakistani Senate Human Rights Permanent Committee, Senator
Seyid Mohammed Zafar.

The President’s press service told APA that Mr. Mohammed Zafar said
Pakistan’s key media outlet `Pakistan Observer’ awarded President
Aliyev Best Governed Muslim Country. The visitor said Mr,Aliyev has
been awarded this prize for his contributions to great achievements
in national development, modernization of country economy, state
management, education as well as development of human resources. The
President was presented with the Best Governed Muslim Country award.
The head of Azerbaijan expressed his gratitude for the award. He
underlined that Pakistan is one of closest allies of Azerbaijan, and
there exist high level relations between our countries.
Mr. Aliyev highly appreciated Pakistan’s full support for
Azerbaijan’s fair position regarding Armenia’s aggression against
Azerbaijan, Armenia-Azerbaijan conflict./APA/

Al-Jazeera, Qatar
May 8 2006

Genocide term prompts Turkish snub

Monday 08 May 2006, 16:18 Makka Time, 13:18 GMT

Turkey has recalled its ambassadors to France and Canada for
consultations in a row over Armenian deaths during the first world
war.

Both France and Canada acknowledge the mass killings of Armenians was
a genocide.

The temporary recall of the diplomats was Turkey’s latest move
against increasing international pressure on the country to recognise
the killings as genocide.

Turks say the death count is inflated and insist that Armenians were
killed or displaced as the Ottoman Empire tried to secure its border
with Russia and stop attacks by Armenian militants.

Turkey recently criticised Stephen Harper, the Canadian prime
minister, for remarks he made in support of recognising the mass
killings as genocide, and said that such statements threatened
Turkish-Canadian relations.

Turkey has also warned French politicians not to approve a draft law
which would make the denial of the genocide a crime.

France’s parliament is set to consider next week a one-article bill,
which would make it a crime to deny the Armenian genocide of 1915. It
is already an offence in France to deny the Holocaust of the second
world war.

Armenians say 1.5 million of their people were killed as the Ottoman
Empire forced them from eastern Turkey between 1915 and 1923 – and
that this was a deliberate campaign of genocide by Turkey’s rulers at
that time.