TURKEY WARNS FRANCE ON GENOCIDE VOTE

01/20/2012

ANKARA – Turkey’s Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu on Friday urged
French lawmakers to reject a bill making it illegal to deny the 1915
mass killing of Armenians by Ottoman Turks, which comes up for a vote
next week.

Lawmakers in the lower-house National Assembly voted overwhelmingly
last month in favor of a draft law outlawing genocide denial. That
prompted Ankara to cancel all economic, political and military meetings
with Paris and briefly recall its ambassador for consultations.

NATO member Turkey, which sees the charge of genocide as a national
insult, has warned it will take further action against Paris if the
bill is approved.

“We call every senator to take some time to assess the issue,”
Davutoglu told a news conference.

“The parliament’s decision will not live. It will be a black stain
on French intellectual history and we will always remind them of that.”

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress