ANALYSTS: TURKEY’S THREATS TO FRANCE OVER GENOCIDE WILL BACKFIRE
PanARMENIAN.Net
January 27, 2012 – 20:58 AMT
PanARMENIAN.Net – Turkey’s attempts to intimidate France and other
countries over the question of the Armenian Genocide are bound to
backfire, analysts said as the 100th anniversary of the bloodshed
approaches, AFP reported.
“This negative and reactive strategy has failed, and no one is ready
to admit it,” said Cengiz Aktar of Istanbul’s Bahcesehir University.
“I hope that the authorities will think about it and come up with a
different tack by the time of the 100th anniversary of the Armenian
Genocide that is coming up in 2015,” said Aktar, an international
relations professor, using the term Ankara condemns.
Hugh Pope of the International Crisis Group agreed, saying: “There
are many people in Turkey that are worried about how Turkey is going
to handle the situation in 2015.”
He said Ankara should “get on a path of reconciliation with the
Armenians so that they can be on the side of the people who are
going to be remembering the lost communities of Armenians” in the
anniversary year.
“Turkey is making more and more threats against France,” wrote
editorialist Semih Idiz in the Milliyet daily. “But in a few weeks the
issue will rear its head again in the U.S. Congress. There are other
countries waiting in the wings. Will Turkey recall its ambassador
each time?” he asked. “It’s an absurd situation.”
Turkey can no longer escape its duty of contrition for the Genocide,
said Soli Ozel of Istanbul’s Kadir Has University.
“First and foremost it must express chagrin, and the Turkish state
has never done that,” the international relations professor wrote in
the daily HaberTurk.
The French Senate on Monday, January 23 approved legislation under
which anyone in France who denies that the 1915 massacre of Armenians
by Ottoman Turk forces amounted to Genocide could face imprisonment.
On Tuesday, Paris brushed off angry threats of retaliation by Turkey
and said the bill would become law in two weeks.
Ankara has already halted political amid military cooperation and is
threatening to cut off economic and cultural ties.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress
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