TURKEY RIPS UP MILITARY COOPERATION WITH FRANCE AFTER CRIMINALIZING DENIAL OF ARMENIAN GENOCIDE BY OTTOMAN EMPIRE
Azerbaijan Business Center
Dec 23 2011
Baku, Fineko/abc.az. Turkey has resorted to retaliation after yesterday
the French Parliament adopted the Law on Criminal Responsibility for
denying the genocide of Armenians in the Ottoman Empire from 1915
to 1918.
Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan called the decision
the strong blow to bilateral relations and an example of racism,
discrimination, extreme xenophobia.
Erdogan ordered in this regard to stop military, political and economic
cooperation with France, close the Turkish airspace for the French
Air Force aircrafts, and all ports for ships of war of this country.
Yesterday, the Lower House of the French parliament introduced a
penalty for denying the genocide of Armenians in the Ottoman Empire
(the First World War) in the form of detention for up to one year and
fines of up to EUR 45,000. Previously only denial of the Holocaust
(genocide of the Jews by Nazi Germany before and during World War II)
has been subjected to criminalization.