Hurriyet, Turkey
Oct 7 2011
Diplomatic tensions hit Franco-Turk ties
Friday, October 7, 2011
Sevil KüçükkoÅ?um
ANKARA ` Hürriyet Daily News
France’s President Nicolas Sarkozy (L) and Azerbaijan’s President
Ilham Aliev speak, next to Azerbaijan’s first lady Mehriban Aliyeva
(R), on the balcony in Baku. AFP photo
Relations between Turkey and France could be headed for a new crisis
after French President Nicolas Sarkozy suggested his government could
pass a bill criminalizing any denial of Armenian genocide claims,
drawing a swift reaction from Ankara.
Turkish Ambassador to Paris Tahsin BurcuoÄ?lu will visit the French
Foreign Ministry on Oct. 8 to lodge Ankara’s protest regarding
Sarkozy’s comments, the Hürriyet Daily News has learned.
The development came on the same day the interior ministers of Turkey
and France signed an important agreement on the fight against terror
and organized crime, but the deal has been overshadowed by the
eruption of the diplomatic crisis.
Sarkozy, who is currently on a Caucasus tour, visited Armenia on Oct.
6 and urged Turkey to `revisit its history’ over the killings of
hundreds of thousands Armenians during the waning days of the Ottoman
Empire.
If Turkey does not recognize the genocide claims and step toward
reconciliation, the French president said he would consider proposing
the adoption of a law criminalizing the denial of the killings as
genocide. An earlier attempt by the French government was rejected by
the French Senate in 2009.
Sarkozy intimated that Turkey should make the recognition before the
end of his mandate in May next year.
France should face on past, Ankara says
Foreign Minister Ahmet DavutoÄ?lu instructed BurcuoÄ?lu to express
Ankara’s feelings and opinions in a strongly worded message to his
French counterpart.
Alongside the diplomatic protest, senior members of the Turkish
government harshly criticized Sarkozy’s stance and urged France to
confront its colonial past before giving lessons to others.
`Those who will not be able to face their own history for having
carried out colonialism for centuries, for treating foreigners as
second-class people, do not have the right to teach Turkey a history
lesson or call for Turkey to face its history. It will be very
beneficial if France confronts its own history, particularly with
African nations,’ DavutoÄ?lu told reporters Oct. 7.
Turkey could face its own history, but it is also a history of Turks
and Armenians living together, DavutoÄ?lu said.
`I consider such remarks [by Sarkozy] as political opportunism, and
unfortunately such political opportunism is seen in Europe whenever
there is an upcoming election,’ DavutoÄ?lu said.
Turkish EU Minister Egemen BaÄ?ıÅ? also criticized Sarkozy, saying the
president would do better to concern himself with extricating France
from its economic crisis rather than play historian on the Armenian
question. `Our mission, as politicians, is not to define the past or
past events. It is to define the future,’ he was quoted as saying by
Anatolia news agency during a visit to Sarajevo.
`Turkey does not belong in EU’
During his visit to Tbilisi on his tour, Sarkozy reiterated his
opposition to Turkey’s accession to the European Union. `France does
not see this country [Turkey] in the EU,’ he said.
`Turkey has an important role in the world as it has been located in
Asia Minor and is a bridge between West and East. But this role [of
Turkey] does not cover the EU,’ he said.
In the last leg of his Caucasus tour, Sarkozy visited Azerbaijan, a
close ally of Turkey, from where he received a cold shoulder for his
views on the genocide claims.
Ali Hasanov, a senior official at the Azerbaijani Presidency, said his
country did not share Sarkozy’s views on the 1915 incidents, Anatolia
reported.
Recalling that Turkey and Azerbaijan’s regional interests were
similar, Hasanov said they hoped Sarkozy’s visit would help speed up
efforts to solve the Nagorno-Karabkh dispute with Armenia.
From: A. Papazian