ERDOGAN REITERATES BOYCOTT THREATS TO FRANCE
Armenpress
May 16 2006
ANKARA, MAY 16, ARMENPRESS: Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan
threatened France with trade sanctions if it adopts a bill making it
illegal to deny that the 1915-17 massacre of Armenians in Turkey was
“genocide,” AFP said quoting from a Turkish newspaper.
“Patience has its limits. We do not have hatred (toward France) but
we will impose our sanctions,” the Turkish newspaper Hurriyet quoted
Turkey’s prime minister as saying at a summit of Muslim countries on
the Indonesian island of Bali. French lawmakers are due to consider
next week a bill from the opposition Socialists which would make
anyone denying the existence of the “Armenian genocide” liable to a
five-year jail term and a 45,000-euro ($57,000) fine.
French MPs should be “particularly sensitive” to the issue of possible
sanctions since France is the number one investor in Turkey, Erdogan
said. “There will possibly be problems.”