STATE FREEZES PURCHASE OF FRENCH CARS IN PROTEST OF GENOCIDE DENIAL BILL
Today’s Zaman
Feb 2 2012
Turkey
The government has frozen the purchase of 130 Renaults, a French
brand, as official state cars for high-ranking officers in protest
of the approval of a genocide denial bill that criminalizes denying
the forceful deportation of Armenians by Ottoman rulers in 1915
was genocide.
According to the Haberturk daily, the Akmercan Company, which provides
official cars for upper-level bureaucrats from the prime minister’s
office, decided to buy 130 Renault Latitude cars, but the prime
minister’s office rejected this decision in protest of the French bill
that has been approved by both the French Parliament and Senate. The
Akmercan Company decided to order Ford Mondeos instead. The company
has already bought 20 Ford Mondeos.
Furthermore, Renault’s electric car, Fluence Z.E., planned to be
given to Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoðan, waits for approval from
the prime minister’s office before it can be delivered. In addition,
the Ministry of Industry, Science and Technology has frozen the order
for 10 electric cars due to the genocide denial bill.
The daily pointed out that these freezes occurred before French
parliamentarians appealed three days ago to the country’s supreme
Constitutional Council to overturn the bill.
The French bill has caused outrage in Turkey, which argues killings
took place on all sides during a fierce partisan conflict.