Posted on 10/12/2006 10:30:47 AM PDT by Republicain
ANKARA, Oct 12, 2006 (AFP) - Turkey threatened unspecified measures against France Thursday after the national assembly in Paris adopted a bill making it a jailable offence to deny that Turks committed genocide against Armenians during World War I.
"We have considered measures in every field. We will activate them seriously and soberly," Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul told reporters.
"Our indignation is great -- both on the official level and among the people," he said, without elaborating on what response the government is considering.
Ankara warned before the vote that French companies would be barred from major tenders, including a project for a nuclear power plant whose tender process is expected to start soon.
Gul said the Turkish parliament will hold a special session Tuesday to assess the situation.
"Turkish-French relations... took a heavy blow today through the irresponsible initiatives of some short-sighted French politicians, based on unfounded allegations," a foreign ministry statement said.
"With this draft law, France is unfortunately losing its privileged status with the Turkish people," it said.
The bill -- which foresees up to one year in prison and a fine of up to 45,000 euros (57,000 dollars) for anyone who denies that the 1915-1917 massacres of Armenians under Ottoman rule was genocide -- still needs the approval of the Senate and the president to take effect.
"We hope France will come back from this dead-end," Gul said.
"No one should expect that Turkey will forget this as it did in 2001," he said, referring to a first French resolution recognizing the killings as genocide.
Ankara also said the draft impeded free debate on a historical subject and flouted provisions protecting freedom of expression in the European Convention of Human Rights.
Pointing at mounting European Union pressure on Ankara to ensure freedom of speech after several Turkish intellectuals were put on trial for contesting the official line on the Armenian issue, the foreign ministry said the French bill was an example of "double standards."
"The credibility of states depends firstly on whether they embrace the values they preach," it said.
Ankara sees the bill as a political gesture to France's Armenian community ahead of presidential elections next year.
Many also see it as a blow below the belt by opponents of Turkey's EU membership that will tarnish the country's image in Europe and fan anti-Western feeling among Turks.
Echoing that sentiment, Parliament Speaker Bulent Arinc said the French move reflected a "hostile attitude" towards Turkey.
"It is a shameful decision. This is a hostile attitude against the Turkish nation... It is unacceptable," Arinc was quoted as saying by the Anatolia news agency.
Members of a trade union laid a black wreath outside the French Embassy in Ankara and at least one egg was hurled into the mission's garden before police seized a bag full of eggs the protestors had brought, Anatolia reported.
Some business and consumer groups called for a boycott of French goods.
"Each week, we will announce a French brand (to boycott) and the boycott list will grow," said Baris Deniz, the head of the Consumers' Union.
"French companies must be definitely sidelined from major public tenders, particularly in the transport, energy and defense industry sectors," Omer Bolat, chairman of Islamist-leaning business group MUSIAD, told Anatolia.
Bilateral trade between Turkey and France totalled 8.2 billion euros (10 billion dolars) in 2005.
France also plays a leading role in foreign direct investment in Turkey with 2.1 billion dollars (1.6 billion euros) last year and 328 million dollars (260 million euros) in the first seven months of 2006.
Why ?
Because Chirac is Chirac. And because France is a "République Monarchiste" (a "republican monarchy").
I've never understood making speech a criminal offense. I have no use for Holocaust deniers, and certainly the Turks committed genocide against the Armenians. But a criminal offense to say differently? Why not just refute these people with facts?
}:-)4
Another Muslim massacre of Christians (Orthodox). Read about how the Turks nearly obliterated all of Armenia (little is left). For entrance into the European Union, Turkey is supposed to come clean (that is, admit they committed geocide against the Armenians). Of course, they won't!
http://www.armenian-genocide.org/genocide.html
Maybe because negationists always deny the facts, whatever the evidences.
If they need the support of the French Armenian community to get elected, they won't.
Turkey will eventually ally more dramatically with Iran and their ties will increase. They're already cooperating against the PKK on mutual borders.
Always thought the Euros were hypocritical on this issue. Do they want Turkey to be further to the West--or do they want it to venture further down the road into Islamic fundamentalism? The talk about uncertainty in accepting Islamic Turkey into the "Christian" EU is a load of BS. Europe is post Christian (maybe the current pope will have a slight influence on that). If I were Turkey, I would want to pick up my toys and go home. Turkey still has to get real about the Armenian genocide and more importantly all those Kurds inside its border. Forget Europe--the US is the one who is going to have its head spinning if the Kurdish thing blows up.
Who would need the support of french armenian community to get elected ?
How will the US head be spinning over "the kurdish thing" blowing up?
We want Turkey in EU if, and only if, she's able to be a real European country. The question of religion is secondary. If Turkey wants to be a plain member of EU, Turkey must change a lot of things, and the Armenian genocide is not the main issue. Cyprus is a far more embarassing problem.
What Turkey should do is take all their fellow throat-slitters out of France and all other civilized countries and go back home.
ping
I have a limited understanding of the upcoming French campaign/elections, but the majority of French are opposed to Ankara's EU entry, which was given as a major reason they turned down the new Constitution.
The 500,000 Armenians in France behind this bill will only gain more French support, as it is another way for the masses to reject the imposition of Turkey's entry by Europe's elite.
This may actually be the beginning of a French spine calcifying. How ironic that it's the muscle of immigrants who have suffered that is behind it.
http://news.scotsman.com/latest.cfm?id=1512962006
Algeria welcomed a draft bill submitted to the Turkish Parliament for recognition of the French killings in Algeria as “genocide”.
Algerian Parliament Foreign Relations Commission Head Reguieg Bentabet thanked the Turkish deputies who brought the issue to the government’s agenda. Bentabet stated he discussed the issue with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan during his visit to Algeria in June, and voiced his full agreement for the move.
Speaking to Zaman news agency, Bentabet pointed out that France is unwilling to “recognize the genocide conducted in Algeria.” Noting that France is now attempting to evaluate Turkey’s history, Bentabet called this a “double standard.”
Asserting that they want France to recognize its mass killings as genocide, the Algerian politician said Paris is silent at the moment, but Algeria will keep insisting for recognition of the genocide.
Bentabet noted that the long-awaited friendship agreement between the two countries has yet to be signed.
French daily, La Tribune published an article on the issue and commented “The Turkish Parliament will defend Algeria’s history and benefits.”
Draft to be Discussed by Justice Commission
The Turkish Parliamentary Justice Commission will discuss the draft bill on Tuesday to adopt May 8 as a commemoration day for France’s genocide in Algeria.
In the event the bill passes, May 8 will be declared commemoration day for the Algerian genocide, and those rejecting the genocide will be sentenced to up to five years imprisonment and fined 100,000 Turkish Lira.
In the bill, the genocide against the Algerian people is defined as France’s “inhuman actions against Algerians in the cities of Setif, Guelma and Kherrata on 8 May 1945.”
Three different bills on the issue were submitted to the Parliament in May.
Commission Head Koksal Toptan said they could no longer ignore the bills that have been pending for five months after France’s recent attempts.
- - What goes around comes around. - -
Turkey has proven itself to be an unreliable friend of the United States when we asked them for a favor. The US should just queitly step aside as if we are releasing a bad girlfriend back into the wild. And just shut up and walk away in the opposite direction without looking back. It is up to her to make the next contact to us.
Why stop there? Why not do the same thing regarding the Turks' massacre of Christians at Constantinople and other Byzantine cities? That was genocide, too.
Yep. Algeria and Turkey are moving towards Iran. North Africa across to Afghan will be a bloc shortly.
"We want Turkey in EU"
No. We don't want Turkey in Europe because of Islam. On top, Turkey is an artificial state created by invasion and forced conversion. It used to be Byzantium, a true pearl and a would-have-been worthy member of the EU.
Anyway, if Kurdistan is established Turkey is toast.
-Except that, if a genocide is always a mass killing, a mass killing is not necessarily a genocide.
Genocide :
- The systematic killing of substantial numbers of people on the basis of ethnicity, religion, political opinion, social status, or other particularity.
- Acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial or religious group.
Thousands of french have been killed during WWII, some during mass killings (Oradour-sur-Glane, for instance), but nobody speaks of a french genocide. Thousands of arabs have been killed by the french army during the Algerian war (and a lot of european and arab civilians killed by the Algerian FLN too), but it has never been a systematic killing. That's an essential difference.
Words matter.
No loss. EU, Israel, US and Japan can do fine without the radicals.
Oh, but I so enjoy this spat. And it is almost certain to end in an entertaining French surrender.
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