FRENCH FIRM WINS DIGITAL PASSPORT BID

Hurriyet Daily News
Jan 28 2012
Turkey

France’s President Sarkozy (L) visits a biometric passport office in
Paris. REUTERS photo A French firm won Turkey’s electronic passport
tender Dec. 22, 2011, just two days after the French Parliament
ratified the Armenian genocide draft law, according to daily
Hurriyet. The French state owns an 8 percent stake in the firm.

French Parliament ratified Dec. 20, 2011, the Armenian genocide
draft law. The day after the passing of the draft law, Turkey’s Prime
Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan vowed to stop French companies benefiting
from state tenders, adding that they would act accordingly for both
existing and future contracts that the French were entitled to.

The result of the electronic passport tender was announced Jan. 12,
according to daily Zaman, adding that Gemalto, the winning French
company, will charge 7.7 million euros for the 5 million chips to be
integrated into passport covers.

It was proved at an international conference that the system Gemalto
developed for passport chips was not safe, said daily Zaman. If appeals
lodged against the tender do not result in a change, a contract will
be signed with the French firm, it said.

The news comes as the Turkish government considers a policy of altered
relations with France after the French Senate recently approved the
draft law penalizing denial of Armenian genocide.

During the last years of the Ottoman Empire, Ottoman forces reportedly
deported or killed hundreds of thousands of Armenians living throughout
Anatolia, based on the grounds that in their struggle for independence
some Armenian groups were cooperating with the imperial powers that
were at war with the Ottomans.

Armenians and people around the world have defined these events
as genocide.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress