The Daily Star, Lebanon
Dec 24 2011

Erdogan accuses France of Algeria genocide

December 24, 2011 02:19 AM

ISTANBUL: Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan turned his anger
on French President Nicolas Sarkozy Friday in a historical row over
genocide, accusing France of colonial massacres in Algeria.

Erdogan returned to the attack a day after the lower house of the
French parliament voted to make it a crime to deny that mass killings
of Armenians in Ottoman Turkey in 1915 amounted to genocide.

Personalizing the standoff, he said on live television that Sarkozy’s
father might have direct knowledge about French `massacres’ in Algeria
where Algerians were `martyred mercilessly’ and `en masse.’

`In Algeria from 1945, an estimated 15 percent of the population was
massacred by the French. This is a genocide. The Algerians were burned
en masse in ovens. They were martyred mercilessly,’ Erdogan said.

`If the French President Mr. Sarkozy doesn’t know about this genocide
he should go and ask his father, Paul Sarkozy.

`His father served in the French Legion in Algeria in the 1940s. I am
sure he would have lots to tell his son about the French massacres in
Algeria,’ the Turkish premier said.

Sarkozy’s father – actually named Pal – told BFM TV the comments were
`completely ridiculous.’

`I have never been to Algeria. I’ve never been beyond Marseille and I
was in the foreign legion for just four months,’ he said.

Speaking in Prague where he attended the funeral of former Czech
President Vaclav Havel, Sarkozy responded calmly to Erdogan’s
comments.

`I respect the convictions of our Turkish friends. It’s a great
country with a great civilization, [but] it has to respect our
convictions,’ the president said.

French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe described Turkey’s reaction as `in
all likelihood excessive,’ but struck a conciliatory tone.

`There are many reasons to keep alive a relationship of trust and
friendship between France and Turkey,’ Juppe said, adding that
personally he had not been in favor of the vote.

The French bill, which will be debated in the Senate next year, has
caused outrage in Turkey, which argues killings took place on all
sides during a fierce partisan conflict.

Erdogan condemned the bill shortly after the vote, suggesting Sarkozy
was angling for ethnic Armenian votes in next year’s presidential
election.

He recalled Ankara’s ambassador to France for consultations and
cancelled all joint economic, political and military meetings.
Erdogan, Friday vowed to take more steps.

`We will take gradual measures as long as the current [French]
attitude is maintained,’ he said without elaborating, but added
Turkey’s stance was not directed at the French people.

`The vote in the French parliament has shown how dangerous racism,
discrimination and Islamophobia have become in France and Europe.’

The country’s economy minister weighed in late Thursday, saying the
genocide bill was based on `a crisis of jealousy.’

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress