Author: Kajoyan Gevork

TURKEY WARNS SARKOZY OVER ARMENIAN GENOCIDE LAW
By Gavriel Queenann

1/24/2012, 7:59 PM

Turkey continues to threaten France as President Nicolas Sarkozy
prepares to sign a bill recognizing the Armenian Genocide.

WikipediaTurkey warned French president Nicolas Sarkozy on Tuesday
against signing a law that makes it a crime to deny that the killings
of Armenians by Ottoman Turks nearly a century ago constituted
genocide.

France’s parliament approved the bill late Monday over Turkish
objections. Officials in President Nicolas Sarkozy’s government
insisted the vote didn’t directly target the country.

Turkey, which sees the characterization of genocide for its
anti-Armenian pogroms as an insult to its national honor, has
already suspended military, economic and political ties with Paris,
and briefly recalled its ambassador last month when the lower house
of French parliament approved the same bill.

The Senate voted 127 to 86 to pass the bill late Monday. Twenty-four
people abstained. The measure sets a punishment of up to one year
in prison and a fine of C45,000 ($59,000) for those who deny or
“outrageously minimize” the killings.

For some in France, the bill is part of a tradition of legislation
in some European countries, born of the agonies of the Holocaust,
which criminalizes the denial of genocide. Denying the Holocaust is
already a punishable crime in France.

Most historians contend that the 1915 killings of 1.5 million
Armenians as the Ottoman Empire broke up was the 20th century’s first
genocide, and several European countries recognize the massacres
as such. Switzerland has convicted people of racism for denying
the genocide.

The harsh crackdown came during an ongoing Russian-backed series
of Armenian rebellions in Turkey. Armenians call the massacre “The
Great Crime.”

However, there are those who feel referring to the pogroms carried
out by Turkey against the Armenians Genocide cheapens the Holocaust as
the Jews of Europe were peaceful members of European society striving
to be good citizens.

Turkey’s pogroms – The Great Crime – came in response to a widespread
Russian-backed Armenian rebellion.

Officials in Ankara say there was no systematic campaign to
kill Armenians and that many Turks also died during the chaotic
disintegration of the empire. It also says that death toll is inflated.

Sarkozy, whose party supported the bill, must sign it into law,
but that is largely considered a formality.

The office of Turkish prime minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan warned
that Turkey would take further, unspecified steps to punish France
if Sarkozy follows through.

Analysts say, however, with Sarkozy up for re-election and some
400,000 ethnic Armenians holding French citizenship he is unlikely
to be dissuaded.

FRENCH BUSINESS ORGANIZATION TO MEET WITH ITS FIRMS IN TURKEY

Jan 24 2012
Turkey

The largest employers’ organization in France, MEDEF, has called French
companies doing business in Turkey to an urgent meeting on Tuesday.

Largest employers’ organization in France calls French companies
doing business in Turkey to an urgent meeting

The largest employers’ organization in France, MEDEF, has called French
companies doing business in Turkey to an urgent meeting on Tuesday.

In a statement made to the French News Agency, a MEDEF representative
said that an urgent meeting has been scheduled for French companies
doing business in Turkey following the adoption of an Armenian bill
at the French Senate on Monday.

Turkish-French trade volume was worth 11.7 billion euros in 2010. Out
of this amount, 6.3 billion euros consisted of France’s exports
to Turkey.

France happens to be the sixth country in Turkey with most investments.

An Armenian bill adopted at the French Senate on Monday would
criminalize the rejection of Armenian allegations pertaining to the
incidents of 1915 in France with a prison term of one year and a
monetary fine of 45,000 euros.

DAVUTOGLU: EUROPEAN VALUES ARE UNDER THREAT

Turkish Press
Jan 24 2012

Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said that French Senate would vote
a bill on Armenian allegations, and France was voting itself today.

Speaking in a conference at Erciyes University yesterday, Davutoglu
said that Europe’s arrogance was showing itself at French Senate today.

“From now on, European values are under threat. If each parliament
makes decisions containing its own views of history, a new era of
inquisition would be opened in Europe, the books contrary to such
historical opinions would be burned and those who express views that
exclude this view of history would be imprisoned. This is a typical
understanding of the inquisition. It would be unfortunately a great
shame for France to revive this,” said Davutoglu.

FRANCE PASSES ARMENIAN “GENOCIDE” BILL

French Senate yesterday voted for a bill making it a crime to deny
the 1915 killings of Armenians as genocide, although Turkey vowed to
punish Paris with permanent sanction, in case it is passed into law.

While French Senators were discussing the bill, thousands of Turks
were protesting in front of the Senate building.

Making a speech on behalf of the government, French Minister of
Relations with Parliament Patrick Ollier said during yesterday’s
session that the bill complied with French and EU laws.

On the contrary, speaking after Ollier at the Senate before the
voting, Constitution Commission head Jean Pierre Sueur requested the
rejection of the bill on the grounds that it violates Article 34 of
the French constitution. Sueur also reiterated that a research report
released by Parliament in 2008 indicates that parliaments should not
write history. He also referred to prominent French historian Pierre
Nora’s statements, indicating that “the parliamentarians cannot write
history.” But as a result of yesterday’s seven-hour session, the bill
was adopted with 127 affirmative votes versus 86 negative votes.

After French President Nicolas Sarkozy approves the bill, it will be
released in the official gazette and will then enter into force.

ARMENIA CELEBRATES ‘GENOCIDE BILL’ AT FRENCH EMBASSY

EuroNews
Jan 24 2012
France

There was a festive mood outside the French embassy in Yerevan as
Armenians celebrated the passing of a French law making it illegal
to deny that the killing of Armenians by Ottoman Turks was genocide.

Many expressed their gratitude to France and French President Nicolas
Sarkozy, whose party first proposed the bill. Sarkozy also received
a letter from Armenia’s President Serzh Sargsyan.

Armenian Foreign Minister Eduard Nalbandyan said the French decision
was important for history: “This day will be written in gold, not only
in the history of friendship between the Armenian and French peoples,
but also in the annals of history for the protection of human rights
worldwide, and will further consolidate the existing mechanisms of
prevention of crimes against humanity.”

All political groups in Armenia, whether in government or opposition,
have welcomed the decision made by the French Senate on Monday night
after more than seven hours of debate.

The French ambassador to Armenia, Henri Renaud, was warmly received
by the crowd outside the embassy, where many shook his hand and patted
him on the back.

A student outside the embassy said he was there to express his
gratitude: “Today we are together in front of the French embassy in
Armenia to thank the French people, who, without putting economic
interests first, adopted the law that will invigorate the relationship
between French and Armenian people.”

Waving flags, and chanting ‘merci’, the crowd outside the embassy
also brought banners and postcards saying ‘France is the Protector
of Historical Justice’ and ‘France is our Friend’.

TURKEY WARNS OF ‘RUPTURE’ WITH FRANCE

United Press International UPI
Jan 24 2012

PARIS, Jan. 24 (UPI) — Turkey threatened to downgrade its French
ties to an all-time low after France’s Senate criminalized denial of
the Armenian genocide of nearly a century ago.

Turkish Ambassador to France Tahsin Burcuoglu said the 127-86 vote,
following passage in the Parliament’s lower house last month, would
lead to a “total rupture” of Franco-Turk relations.

“When I say total rupture, I include things like I can leave
definitively,” Burcuoglu told reporters, suggesting he could be
recalled to Turkey permanently.

The bill, which French President Nicolas Sarkozy is expected to sign
into law by February, would impose a fine of more than $58,000 and a
year in jail on those who deny any officially recognized genocide. It
makes no reference to the estimated 1.5 million Armenians slaughtered
under the Ottoman Turks between 1915 and 1918.

France recognizes only the Armenian massacre and the Holocaust as
genocides and already specifically bans Holocaust denial.

“You can also expect that now diplomatic relations will be at the level
of charges d’affaires, not ambassadors anymore,” Burcuoglu said Monday.

A charge d’affaires is the lowest-rank envoy under the 1961 Vienna
Convention on Diplomatic Relations — a step above breaking diplomatic
relations.

Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu warned of “permanent
sanctions,” calling the bill a “black stain” on France.

Turkey has already suspended military cooperation, bilateral political
accords and economic contracts with France over the bill.

It raised the possibility Monday of withdrawing support for the
French-based 24-hour news channel Euronews, in which Turkey’s national
public broadcaster holds a 15.5 percent stake, The New York Times
reported.

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan was expected to outline
possible retaliatory measures against Paris before Parliament Tuesday.

Turkey has a law that is a mirror image of the French bill, prohibiting
descriptions of the Armenian killings as genocide. Turkey says such
descriptions insult Turkish identity.

Ankara acknowledges atrocities, but argues no more than 500,000
Armenians died and says the killings did not constitute deliberate
and systematic genocide.

It says many Turks perished during those years of war.

Armenia, on Turkey’s eastern border, considers Monday’s vote a
momentous act that “will be written in gold, not only in the history
of friendship between the Armenian and French peoples, but also
in the annals of the history of the protection of human rights,”
Foreign Minister Edward Nalbandian said.

Sarkozy wrote to Erdogan last week, hoping for “reason and dialogue”
with Turkey. He said the bill did not cite the Armenian genocide by
name. He said France recognized the “suffering endured by the Turkish
people” in the Ottoman Empire’s final years.

Sarkozy faces a difficult re-election battle, with a two-round
presidential vote April 22 and May 6. Some French opposition members
accuse Sarkozy’s party of pandering to France’s sizable Armenian
population.

About 500,000 French citizens claim Armenian descent, the largest such
population in Europe. Those who claim Turkish descent number 400,000.

Slovenia and Switzerland treat denial of the Armenian genocide as
a crime.

RUSSIAN FM AND MEDIATORS DISCUSS KARABAKH CONFLICT

SIA INFORMATION AGENCY
Aynur Mehtiyeva
Jan 23 2012
Azerbaijan

Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Grigoriy Karasin met the co-chairs
of the OSCE Minsk Group in Washington on Saturday.

They discussed resolution of the Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict
over Nagorno-Karabakh ahead of the forthcoming meeting of the two
countries’ presidents in Sochi on 23 January, the Russian Foreign
Ministry reported.

Karasin met the three co-chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group – Ambassadors
Bernard Fassier of France, Robert Bradtke of the United States, and
Igor Popov of Russia – and Andrzej Kasprzyk, special representative
of the OSCE chairman-in-office.

FRENCH PARLIAMENT ADOPTS GENOCIDE BILL, DEFIES TURKISH FURY
By Clare Byrne

Monsters and Critics

Jan 23 2012

Paris – France and Turkey were headed for another diplomatic showdown
Monday after the French Senate adopted a bill that makes it a crime
to deny that Armenians suffered genocide at the hands of Ottoman
Turks a century ago.

A majority of 127 senators voted in favour of the bill after more
than seven hours of intense debate. Eighty-six members voted against
and 24 votes were declared invalid.

Turkey has threatened diplomatic and economic reprisals against France
if the bill, which passed the lower house of parliament in December,
was definitively adopted.

Under the legislation, people who deny or ‘outrageously minimize’
genocides recognized by France face a year’s imprisonment and 45,000
euros (57,000 dollars) in fines.

After Monday’s vote, France now officially recognizes two genocides:
the Nazi Holocaust of Jews during World War II and the deaths of
hundreds of thousands of Armenians in eastern Turkey between 1915
and 1917.

The country already has a law punishing Holocaust denial. The text
adopted Monday aims to extend the same sanctions to the Armenian
massacres, which a dozen countries have labelled a genocide.

Several hundred people demonstrated outside the Senate as the
sparsely-attended debate got underway.

Many senators ducked out of voting on a bill that was supported by
the main parties despite its risk to relations with a NATO ally.

A group of French protesters of Turkish origin denounced the bill as
an attempt to impose a French reading of history.

On the other side of a phalanx of riot police, a group of
Franco-Armenians demonstrated in support of the legislation. ‘It’s a
fact (that there was genocide). All we want is for Turkey to recognize
that,’ an elderly woman told BFM TV.

Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu on Monday warned France
not to underestimate Turkey, saying Ankara had prepared a raft of
punitive measures.

Many Turks already feel betrayed by France because of President
Nicolas Sarkozy’s firm opposition to Turkey joining the European Union.

After December’s Assembly vote, Ankara had already suspended bilateral
cooperation and temporarily recalled its ambassador.

The Turkish embassy in Paris says that this time, diplomatic ties
could be downgraded, and that French firms could find themselves
frozen out of Turkish government contracts.

The French foreign ministry on Monday called for restraint and
emphasized the importance of Turkey ‘as a partner and ally.’

Opening the debate in the Senate, Patrick Ollier, the minister in
charge of relations with parliament, said the bill was ‘not about
stating history but about treating genocides recognized by France
equally.’

Armenians say around 1.5 million people were killed or died during
forced marches to the Syrian desert between 1915 and 1917.

Turkey estimates between 300,000 and 500,000 people died but rejects
the genocide label, saying that there was no systematic policy to
destroy the Christian Armenian community. Turkey says that many Muslim
Turks also died in the violence, which took place during World War I.

Erdogan has accused Sarkozy of using the bill, which was proposed by
a member of the ruling party, to win the support of France’s small
but influential Armenian community ahead of this year’s presidential
and parliamentary elections.

Before becoming president in 2007, Sarkozy – who is expected to seek
reelection in April – promised the Armenian community to push through
legislation banning genocide denial.

FRENCH SENATE BACKS ARMENIA GENOCIDE BILL

Reuters Africa

Jan 23 2012

PARIS (Reuters) – France’s upper house of parliament approved a
bill Monday that would make it a criminal offence to deny genocide,
legislation that has caused tension between Paris and Ankara.

The bill, which was approved by the lower house in December, has
triggered outrage in Turkey as it would include the 1915 mass killing
of Armenians in Ottomon Turkey.

The text will now be put to President Nicolas Sarkozy who should
approve it before parliament takes a break at the end of February
ahead of the presidential election.

(Reporting By John Irish)

FRANCE VOTES ON GENOCIDE BILL, TURKEY WARNS MORE SANCTIONS

Voice of America

Jan 23 2012

The French Senate has begun debating a bill that makes it illegal to
deny as genocide the mass killings of Armenians during Turkey’s Ottoman
era nearly a century ago – despite Turkey’s threat of more sanctions.

French senators were to vote on the legislation late Monday.

Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu told reporters ahead of the
debate that Ankara is ready to implement new and permanent measures
against France unless the law is rejected. He did not elaborate.

France’s lower house of parliament passed the bill last month. The
move prompted Turkey to recall its ambassador to France and ban
the French navy from using Turkish territorial waters. Ankara also
imposed restrictions on the use of Turkish air space by French
military aircraft.

The French foreign ministry called on Turkey not to overreact, and
said France considers Turkey a “very important ally.”

Paris police separated rival demonstrations – one pro-Turkish and one
pro-Armenian – outside the upper house of parliament as the debate
got under way.

The bill says anyone denying the killings of Armenians by Ottoman
forces constituted genocide faces a $60,000 fine and up to one year in
jail. Paris recognized the killings as genocide in 2001, but imposed
no penalty over the issue.

Armenia says 1.5 million Armenians were killed during World War I by
troops of Turkey’s Ottoman Empire. Turkey has acknowledged the loss
of Armenian lives, but says the death toll is exaggerated and does not
amount to genocide. It says the deaths were the result of civil war.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy last week wrote a letter to Turkish
Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, saying the bill does not single
out a particular country.

Mr. Erdogan has accused France of committing genocide in Algeria more
than 60 years ago. He said French colonialists massacred 15 percent of
Algeria’s population starting in 1945. He also accused Mr. Sarkozy of
pandering to the hundreds of thousands of French citizens of Armenian
descent heading into his re-election bid this year.

Turkey’s president, Abdullah Gul, has said Mr. Sarkozy is “prejudiced”
against Turkey.

Relations between France and Turkey, both members of NATO, have
been frozen due to French opposition to Turkey’s bid to join the
European Union.

FRENCH SENATE VOTES ON ARMENIA GENOCIDE BILL

Expatica France

Jan 23 2012

French senators began debating a bill Monday to outlaw denial of the
Armenian genocide, despite a furious Turkey vowing to punish Paris with
“permanent” sanctions if it is passed into law.

The French lower house drew a first wave of Turkish ire last month,
when it approved the bill which threatens with jail anyone in France
who denies that the 1915 massacre of Armenians by Ottoman Turk forces
amounted to genocide.

Ankara froze political and military ties with France and has promised
further measures if the bill is passed by the Senate or is approved
by President Nicolas Sarkozy, whose right-wing UMP party put forward
the bill.

“We appeal for calm,” said French foreign ministry spokesman Bernard
Valero. “Turkey is a very important partner and ally of France.”

Senators are due to vote on the diplomatically fraught bill later
Monday.

Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu, who cancelled talks with
European Union foreign ministers in Brussels on Iran’s nuclear drive
to deal with the crisis, said Ankara had already prepared its response.

“We have previously determined the steps to be taken if the bill is
finally adopted. No one should doubt it,” the state-run Anatolia news
agency quoted Davutoglu as saying.

Davutoglu said Saturday the law would trigger “permanent sanctions”,
arguing that it goes against European values and would not help
Turkish-Armenian relations.

Trade between France and Turkey was worth 12 billion euros (15.5
billion dollars) in 2010, with several hundred French businesses
operating there.

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan accused France of hypocrisy
and Sarkozy of pandering to France’s estimated 400,000 voters of
Armenian origin, three months ahead of a tough re-election battle.

“I hope the Senate will not make France a country contradicting its
own values,” Erdogan said.

“This is a debate which is entirely against the freedom of thought.

This is merely a step taken for the upcoming elections.”

Turkey’s deputy prime minister Bulent Arinc warned Monday that
Ankara could ask Europe’s top rights court to denounce Paris if the
legislation is adopted, a move he said would be a “historic shame”.

Around 15,000 Turks from France, Belgium, The Netherlands and
Luxembourg rallied peacefully on the streets of Paris on Saturday to
protest the law.

Several hundred Turks and Armenians separated by riot police
demonstrated outside the Senate as the debate began, although only
around 40 senators were present initially and discussions were expected
to go on late.

Gendarmes were deployed within the chamber, checking the identities
of those going in, a rare precaution. Dozens of foreign media,
particularly Turkish, filled the press gallery.

The bill has not won universal support in the government, where some
ministers fear it will hurt diplomatic and trade ties with a NATO
ally and major economic partner.

Even Sarkozy’s Foreign Minister Alain Juppe has admitted the bill is
“untimely.”

A Senate Laws Commission on Wednesday rejected the bill, but their
vote is not expected to prevent it from becoming law.

Armenians say up to 1.5 million of their forebears were killed in
1915 and 1916 by the forces of Turkey’s former Ottoman Empire.

Turkey disputes the figure, arguing that only 500,000 died, and denies
this was genocide, ascribing the toll to fighting and starvation during
World War I and accusing the Armenians of siding with Russian invaders.

France has already recognised the killings as a genocide, but the
new bill would go further, by punishing anyone who denies this with
a year in jail and a fine of 45,000 euros ($57,000).

Modern Turkey is extremely sensitive about the issue, and has accused
France of attacking freedom of expression and free historical enquiry.