FRANCE-TURKEY ROW OVER ARMENIAN GENOCIDE
European Report
October 10, 2006
The National Assembly in Paris is scheduled to discuss on 11 October a
bill calling for five years in jail to anyone who denies the alleged
genocide of Armenians at the hands of the Ottoman Empire at the turn
of the 20th century. This controversial piece of legislation was
reintroduced after French President Jacques Chirac urged Turkey on
30 September in the capital of Armenia to recognise World War I-era
massacres of Armenians as genocide if it wants to join the European
Union. In response, the Turkish parliament’s Justice Commission will
debate this week proposals that foresee penalties for any denial of
the killings of Algerians under French colonial rule.
Turkish Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul said that ‘if the bill is
passed, French participation in major economic projects in Turkey,
including the planned construction of a nuclear plant for which the
tender process is expected to soon begin, will suffer’.