Author: Kalantarian Kevo

FRENCH ARMENIAN GENOCIDE BILL: A WASTE OF TIME POSING AS MORALITY

International Business Times

Jan 24 2012
UK

By William Dove: Subscribe to William’s RSS feed

Now that the French Parliament has passed a bill that will make denying
the Armenian genocide a crime punishable by a one year prison sentence
and a five figure fine, what other historical events is the nation
of liberty, equality and fraternity going to outlaw denying?

Will those who publicly doubt the moon landings have to watch what
they say in future? Will Charlie Sheen be required to be more discreet
about his views on 9/11 and should we abandon altogether the debate
on who discovered America first?

It’s lucky that there is such a thing as diplomatic immunity, as
presumably the first person to be arrested under this law would be the
Turkish ambassador to France, given that he represents a government
that refuses to accept that “genocide” is an appropriate description
of what happened to Armenians in the early 20th century.

Indeed one wonders what the point of this law is if it is not to
annoy Turkey. Is France currently being overrun by wild revisionist
historians? Is Marine le Pen making rabid anti-Armenian speeches? Not
noticeably in either instance

No it seems the only prominent organisation to deny or at least
downplay the Armenian genocide is the Turkish government itself, which
at present does not have to take orders, but is free to take offense
from, the French Parliament. So again what is the point of the law,
other than to make some vain politicians feel smug about their own
goodness, if it is not to wind up Turkey?

Rather than using the law to penalise cranks, some of them sinister,
why not bring the power of truth crashing down on those who would
attempt to resist it?

Britain’s very own Nick Griffin is a case in point. The leader of the
British National Party for a long period appeared to be a denier of
the Holocaust, he now tries to avoid the subject while occasionally
trying to downplay the numbers (which incidentally is what the Turkish
government does with the Armenians).

Although he once claimed that the reason he does not talk about his
views on the Holocaust is that European law forbids him to do so,
more likely the real reason is that he knows if he did air David
Irving type views he would be treated with even more contempt than
he already is, as most people accept the Holocaust happened.

Why is that? Is it because people are legally required to believe in
the Holocaust? No, quite obviously it is because the evidence is so
overwhelming that to deny it would be to fly in the face of reason.

If then the French Parliament feels so strongly about the Armenian
genocide instead of trying to ban dissenting viewpoints why don’t
they push to get this particular episode of history, the details of
which are not particularly well-known in much of Europe, more widely
taught in French schools? This would surely lead to a reduction in
the apparently serious problem of Armenian genocide denial.

That would certainly be better than passing laws against denying
historical atrocities, which could be a time consuming process. After
all why don’t they go the full hog and ban denial of the Mai
Lai massacre, Stalin’s Purges, the French Revolutionary Terror,
transatlantic slavery, the Roman occupation of Gaul and the slaughter
of the Amalekites? Come to think of it why not outlaw claims that
Alexander Graham Bell did not invent the first telephone?

Surely French politicians have something better to do? Perhaps one
thing they could do is work on re-building the Franco-Turkish alliance
which so scandalised Christian Europe in the 16th century. But then
their recent behaviour would suggest they would rather forget about
that connection even if they would not dream of denying it.

FRENCH SENATE OUTLAWS DENIAL OF ARMENIAN GENOCIDE

Agence France Presse
Jan 23 2012

PARIS – French senators on Monday approved a bill that outlaws denial
of the Armenian genocide, despite vows from a furious Turkey that it
would punish Paris with “permanent” sanctions.

The Senate passed by a vote of 127 to 86 the bill which threatens with
jail anyone in France who denies that the 1915 massacre of Armenians
by Ottoman Turks amounted to genocide.

The measure must now be signed by President Nicolas Sarkozy to
become law.

FRANCE VOTES ON GENOCIDE LAW, FACES TURKISH REPRISALS

Chicago Tribune
,0,2084564.story
Jan 23 2012
IL

John Irish and Emile Picy, Reuters

PARIS (Reuters) – French senators vote later Monday on a bill to make
it illegal to deny that the mass killing of Armenians by Ottoman
Turks nearly a century ago was genocide, raising the prospect of a
major diplomatic rift between two NATO allies.

Lawmakers in the lower-house National Assembly voted overwhelmingly
in December for the draft law outlawing genocide denial, prompting
Ankara to cancel all economic, political and military meetings with
Paris and recall its ambassador for consultations.

The bill, which has been made more general so that it outlaws the
denial of any genocide, partly in the hope of appeasing the Turks,
will be voted on around 7 p.m. (1800 GMT).

Armenia, backed by many historians and parliaments, says about 1.5
million Christian Armenians were killed in what is now eastern Turkey
during World War One in a deliberate policy of genocide ordered by
the Ottoman government.

The Ottoman empire was dissolved soon after the end of World War One,
but successive Turkish governments and the vast majority of Turks
feel the charge of genocide is a direct insult to their nation. Ankara
argues there was heavy loss of life on both sides during fighting in
the area.

Turkish Deputy Prime Minister Bulent Arinc told reporters at the
Council of Europe in Strasbourg that Ankara would take new and
permanent measures unless the bill was rejected and compared it to
the Inquisition in the Middle Ages which was created by the Catholic
Church to stamp out heresy.

“If the law is voted (through), it will hurt French and Turkish
relations.” Arinc said Turkey could take the matter to the European
Court of Human Rights.

Turkey says the bill is a bid by Sarkozy to win the votes of 500,000
ethnic Armenians in France in the two-round presidential vote on
April 22 and May 6.

The bill mandates a maximum 45,000-euro ($58,000) fine and a year in
jail for offenders. France passed a law recognizing the killing of
Armenians as genocide in 2001.

WAVING VOTING CARDS

Thousands of Turks from across Europe demonstrated in central Paris
at the weekend and about 200 Franco-Turks protested Monday in front
of the Senate. They waved their French voting cards and banners with
slogans including: “It’s not up to politicians to invent history.”

The Socialist Party, which has had a majority in the Senate since
elections in the upper house late last year, and the Senate leader
of President Nicolas Sarkozy’s UMP party, which put forward the bill,
have said they will back the legislation.

But a non-binding Senate recommendation last week said the law would
be unconstitutional and, after weeks of aggressive Turkish lobbying,
there are suggestions the outcome will be closer than anticipated.

If adopted, Sarkozy should then ratify the bill with the process to
be completed before parliament is suspended in February ahead of the
presidential election.

It could still be rejected if some 60 lawmakers agree to appeal the
decision at the country’s highest court and that body considers the
text unconstitutional. The Constitutional Council would have one
month to make its decision.

Sarkozy wrote to Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan last week
saying the bill did not single out any country and that Paris was
aware of the “suffering endured by the Turkish people” during the
final years of the Ottoman empire.

French foreign ministry spokesman Bernard Valero called on Turkey not
to overreact and said Paris considered Ankara a “very important ally.”

Engin Solakoglu, first secretary at the Turkish embassy in Paris, said:
“France can’t continue to say that Turkey is an important ally when
it votes laws against it.”

European Union candidate Turkey could not impose economic sanctions
on France, given its World Trade Organization membership and customs
union accord with Europe.

But the row could cost France state-to-state contracts and would create
diplomatic tension as Turkey takes an increasingly influential role
in the Middle East.

(Additional reporting by Lucien Libert in Paris, Gilbert Reilhac in
Strasbourg and Daren Butler in Istanbul)

FRENCH SENATE DEBATES GENOCIDE BILL AMID TURKEY TENSIONS

Monsters and Critics.com
Jan 23 2012

Paris – France and Turkey were again headed for a diplomatic showdown
Monday as the French Senate began debating a bill making it a crime
to deny that Armenians suffered genocide at the hands of Ottoman Turks.

Turkey has threatened diplomatic and economic sanctions against France
if the bill, which passed the lower house of parliament in December,
is adopted by the upper house, as is expected.

The bill proposes to punish people who deny or ‘outrageously minimize’
genocides recognized by France with a year’s imprisonment and 45,000
euros (57,000 dollars) in fines.

France 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. This bill
aims to extend the sanctions contained in that law to the Armenian
case.

Several hundred people demonstrated outside the Senate – some for
the bill, others against it – as the debate got underway.

Many senators were absent, anxious to avoid voting on a bill that
has damaged relations with a key NATO ally.

Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu on Monday warned France not
to underestimate Turkey, saying Ankara wouldn’t take what it sees as
anti-Turkish legislation lying down.

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 suspended all bilateral
cooperation and temporarily recalled the Turkish ambassador.

The Turkish embassy in Paris says 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.’

‘You can’t punish denial of one and not the other,’ he said.

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 and that many Muslim Turks
also died in the violence, which took place during World War I.

Erdogan has accused Sarkozy of using the bill 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.

HOW WILL ARMENIAN GENOCIDE BILL AFFECT FRANCE-TURKEY RELATIONS?

CNN

Jan 23 2012

(CNN) — Turkey’s fraught relationship with France is set to erode
further as the French Senate prepares to vote on controversial
legislation that would criminalize any public denial of what the bill
calls the Armenian genocide in Ottoman Turkey in 1915 — a description
Turkey has rejected.

Under the legislation, anyone denying the deaths were genocide would
face a jail term and a fine of ~@45,000 ($58,000).

The lower house of French parliament passed the so-called Armenian
genocide bill last December, prompting Turkey to recall its ambassador
from Paris and to cancel certain bilateral visits between the
countries.

What do Armenians say allegedly happened in 1915?

Armenian groups and many scholars argue that starting in 1915, Turks
committed genocide, when more than a million ethnic Armenians were
massacred in the waning days of the Ottoman Empire.

The Turkish-Armenian controversy over the killings that took place last
century has reverberated wherever diaspora communities representing
both groups exist.

What does Turkey say happened in 1915?

Modern-day Turkey, which emerged after the collapse of the Ottoman
Empire, has always denied a genocide took place in 1915. It argues
instead that hundreds of thousands of Armenian Christians and Muslim
Turks died from intercommunal violence, disease and general chaos —
not from a specific plan to eliminate Armenians — around the bloody
battlefields of World War I.

“It has always been a sensitive issue,” said Dr. Katerina Dalacoura, a
lecturer in International Relations at the London School of Economics.

“Turkey has always refused to accept that it was a planned event. They
argue that genocide only applies if it was a plan to exterminate
people.”

Why is France doing this now?

France formally recognized the killings as genocide in 2001.

As there is no new information or new recognition about what the
facts are about events of 1915, some experts believe French President
Nicolas Sarkozy may be using the genocide bill for political gain
ahead of the country’s presidential election in April.

“It’s clear that President Sarkozy has put this on the table for
electoral reasons – there is an Armenian community in France which
will of course be voting,” Christian Malard, Senior Foreign Analyst
at France 3 TV, told CNN on Monday.

The bill has been applauded by Armenians, roughly 500,000 of whom
live in France.

The bill’s author, Valeri Bouyer from Sarkozy’s ruling party, has
denied any political motivation.

As for Sarkozy, he has said his country doesn’t need an OK from another
nation to develop its policies. In a letter to the Turkish government,
he said the law is not aimed at any country, but only at addressing
past suffering.

What is the public opinion in Turkey regarding the Armenian massacre?

Using the word genocide when talking about Armenia may not be as taboo
as it once was, but Turks still chafe at the idea of other countries
writing their history, says Fadi Hakura, Turkey Analyst at Chatham
House, a London-based think tank.

“Things have been progressing, but the population does not like
foreign powers defining their history,” he said. “It generates a lot
of misgivings.”

How would passage of the genocide bill affect Turkey-France relations?

If the French Senate ratifies the bill, ties between the two countries
could unravel further.

Turkey already recalled its ambassador from Paris and cancelled some
bilateral visits between the two countries after the French lower
house passed the bill in December, and Turkish Prime Minister Recep
Tayyip Erdogan warned “this is only the first phase.”

Erdogan has also accused France of committing its own genocide during
the war in Algeria in the 1950s and 1960s.

“In Algeria, an estimated 15 percent of the population had been
subjected to the massacre of French from 1945 on. This is genocide,”
Erdogan said at a conference in Istanbul last year.

“Algerians were burnt en masse in ovens. They were martyred
mercilessly. If French President Mr. (Nicolas) Sarkozy does not know
about this genocide, he should ask his father Paul Sarkozy. His
father Paul Sarkozy served as a soldier in the French legion in
Algeria in 1940s.”

Once under French colonial rule, guerrillas in the North African
nation fought a bloody war against the French presence there from
1954 to 1962.

The French Foreign Ministry shot back at Erdogan’s comments, saying
“we deplore excessive use of formulas and personal attacks that do not
meet up to the standards of our mutual interest and of our relations.

France recalls that it assumes with clarity and transparency its duty
to remember the tragedies that have marked its history.”

Erdogan said he hoped the Senate would fail to pass the so-called
Armenian genocide bill. But he warned that if it did, Turkey would
initiate more measures toward France.

“This will create a lot of noise and difficulty in Turkey’s overall
relationships with France and other EU states that will complicate”
Turkey’s efforts to gain accession to the European Union, said Ross
Wilson, a former U.S. ambassador to Turkey.

Turkey and France are NATO allies, and, according to official Turkish
statistics, the volume of trade between Turkey and France from January
to the end of October this year was more than $13.5 billion.

Do any countries recognize the killing of Armenians in Ottoman Turkey
in 1915 as genocide?

Twenty countries do, including Germany, Sweden and Canada, according
to Hakura.

The genocide debate is an annual source of tension between Turkey and
the United States, also two NATO allies. The White House, for example,
annually beats back efforts in Congress to pass a resolution which
would formally recognize the 1915 massacre of Armenians as genocide.

FRENCH SENATE TO VOTE ON GENOCIDE BILL

Press TV

Jan 23 2012
Iran

The French Senate is to vote on a bill that criminalizes the denial
of the 1915 Armenian genocide, a move that Turkey has threatened to
retaliate by imposing permanent sanctions on Paris.

On Monday afternoon, the French Senate will vote on the bill that
was earlier approved by the lower house in December 2011.

Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said on Saturday that Ankara
would impose “permanent sanctions” if the bill is passed by the French
Senate and ratified by French President Nicolas Sarkozy.

“There will be more sanctions and this time, the sanctions will be
permanent, until the change in French position,” Davutoglu said.

“It is time for French intellectuals, for French senators to defend
our common values, freedom of expression. These are European, French
values. This is against these values,” he added.

Before the French lower house approved the bill, Turkish Prime
Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan had also warned that Ankara would
announce sanctions against Paris.

On Friday, the French embassy in Ankara released a “conciliatory
letter” from Sarkozy to Erdogan. Sarkozy wrote in the letter that the
French bill “is in no way aimed at any state or people in particular.”

The bill would sentence “anyone in France who publicly denies the 1915
genocide to a year in prison and a fine of 45,000 euros (USD 58,000).”

Ethnic Armenian residents in France allege that up to “1.5 million”
of their ancestors were killed during World War I “by the forces of
Turkey’s former Ottoman Empire.”

OVER TURKISH PROTESTS, FRENCH LAWMAKERS TO VOTE ON BILL PENALIZING GENOCIDE DENIAL
By STEVEN ERLANGER and SOPHIE COHEN

The New York Times

Jan 23 2012

PARIS – The French Senate is scheduled to vote on Monday on a law
that would penalize those who deny genocide, taking another step
along a path that has already damaged France’s relations with Turkey.

The draft law, passed in December by the National Assembly, France’s
lower house, does not specifically mention the mass killings of
Armenians by Ottoman Turks in 1915. But those killings were formally
labeled genocide by the French Parliament in 2001, leading to an
angry reaction from the Turkish government, which insists that
there was no deliberate campaign to massacre the Armenians. About
1.5 million Armenians are estimated to have died from shootings,
exposure and starvation.

The Turkish foreign minister, Ahmet Davutoglu, said Friday at a news
conference in Ankara, Turkey, that the law, if passed, would “remain
as a black stain in France’s intellectual history, and we will always
remind them of this black stain.” He asked the senators to reject it.

In a letter last week to Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey,
President Nicolas Sarkozy of France insisted that the bill was in
“no way aimed at any state or people in particular.” Mr. Sarkozy urged
“reason and dialogue” with Turkey on the issue.

Still, the only other mass killing legally recognized in France as
genocide is the Holocaust, and it is already a crime here to deny
the Holocaust.

After the December vote, Turkey’s ambassador to France, Tahsin
Burcuoglu, was briefly recalled to Ankara. Turkey also suspended
military cooperation and bilateral political and economic contracts
with France. Mr. Erdogan accused Mr. Sarkozy of playing politics and
fanning Islamophobia.

The law is the initiative of Valerie Boyer, a legislator from Mr.

Sarkozy’s governing party. Ms. Boyer, who is from Marseille, a city
with a sizable Armenian constituency, denies playing politics.

“Genocide is a universal problem,” she said in an interview. “It is
something that is over and above politics.”

But her draft law has annoyed the Sarkozy government, especially the
Foreign Ministry, at a time when France wants Turkish cooperation
on issues including the Arab Spring, Syrian unrest and the Iranian
nuclear program. France’s foreign minister, Alain Juppe, said in
December that the vote on the genocide law had “without doubt been
badly timed.” He said that “it is important, in the current context,
that we keep the paths of dialogue and cooperation open.”

The bill may not pass the Senate, which is controlled by the
opposition Socialist Party and its allies. On Wednesday, a Senate
committee suggested that the bill could be unconstitutional. Ms. Boyer
criticized the Socialists, saying there had been a consensus on the
bill, “right as well as left.”

The Turkish Foreign Ministry applauded the committee’s suggestion,
saying in a statement that the Senate had shown “common sense and
respect for the law.”

France’s Armenian population, about 500,000 strong, generally praised
the bill. After a Sunday service filled with French Armenians of all
ages at the Sainte-Croix-de-Paris Cathedral here, the Rev. Georges
Assadourian said he was overjoyed. “My great-grandparents were
massacred in 1915,” he said. “The truth cannot be denied.”

Alexis Govciyan, director of the Coordinating Council of Armenian
Organizations of France, praised the effort to recognize victims
of genocide. “France and Armenia have enjoyed close relations for
a thousand years,” he said. “That the French wish to pass this law
shows that they understand Armenian history very well, precisely
because of this friendship.”

The 400,000 people in France’s Turkish community, by contrast, are
angry. Balci Saahip, a costume designer from Izmir, speaking at a
Turkish cafe in the 10th Arrondissement in Paris, said he was furious
about the “electoral manipulation” of history by Mr. Sarkozy’s party.

“We have had enough of people walking all over us,” said Mr. Saahip,
who has lived here for 34 years. While eligible for French citizenship,
he never finished his application because, he said, the reception he
got from the French authorities was “very hostile.”

At an independent Turkish cultural center she runs nearby, Francoise
Onger said that her husband, a Turkish cardiologist, is often mistaken
for an Armenian or a Jew. “No one can believe that a Turk can have
such a good job,” she said.

Kader Kandemir, 26, is a second-generation Turk in France. Her exposure
to Western historiography has led her to question what really happened
in 1915. But she said she would be joining other French Turks from
all over the country in Paris this weekend to demonstrate against
Monday’s Senate vote.

“I’m not saying a genocide didn’t take place,” she said. “I’m saying
that I don’t know whether it did or not, and I shouldn’t have to be
punished for wanting to find out that answer myself.”

FRENCH SENATE PASSES ARMENIAN GENOCIDE LAW

BBC
23 January 2012

Thousands of people took to the streets of Paris on Saturday
to demonstrate against the bill Continue reading the main story
The French Senate has approved a controversial bill that makes it a
criminal offence to deny that genocide was committed by Ottoman Turks
against Armenians during World War I.

Armenia says up to 1.5 million people died in 1915-16 as the Ottoman
empire split. Turkey rejects the term genocide and says the number
was much smaller.

The measure will now be sent to President Sarkozy for final approval.

The bill’s passage in the lower house caused major tensions with
Turkey.

Ankara froze ties with France after the vote last month and promised
further measures if the Senate backed the proposal.

In the event the Senate approved the bill by 127 votes to 86.

The BBC’s correspondent in Istanbul, Jonathan Head, says stronger
Turkish measures could include the withdrawal of ambassadors and
creating more barriers to French businesses in Turkey.

In the first reaction from Ankara, Justice Minister Sadullah Ergin
condemned the bill.

“The decision made by the Senate is a great injustice and shows total
lack of respect for Turkey,” he told the CNN-Turk television channel.

The Turkish embassy in Paris warned that if President Sarkozy approved
the bill, the damage done to relations between the two countries
would be permanent.

“France is in the process of losing a strategic partner,” Turkish
embassy spokesman, Engin Solakoglu, told AFP news agency.

Armenia described the vote as “historic”.

“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 the
history of the protection of human rights worldwide,” said Armenian
Foreign Minister Edward Nalbandian, in a statement carried by AFP.

Free speech

The Turkish government argues that judging what happened to the
Armenian community in eastern Turkey in 1915-16 should be left to
historians, and that the French law will restrict freedom of speech.

Analysis Jonathan Head

BBC News, Istanbul

President Sarkozy has sent a letter to the Turkish prime minister
stating that the law is not aimed at any country, but only at
addressing the past suffering of Armenians.

Ironically, events in the Middle East had started to bring France
and Turkey closer together: after initially squabbling over Libya,
they have both become leading supporters of the Syrian opposition.

But Turkish emotions over the Armenian issue run very high, and will
certainly eclipse any co-operation they might have had over Syria.

Turkish officials acknowledge that atrocities were committed but argue
that there was no systematic attempt to destroy the Armenian people –
and that many innocent Muslim Turks also died in the turmoil of the
events, in the middle of World War I.

France formally recognised the killings as genocide in 2001, one of
more than 20 countries which have done so.

The current bill means that anyone denying the deaths were genocide
would face a jail term and a fine of 45,000 euros (£29,000; $58,000).

The bill was put forward by President Sarkozy’s UMP party.

France has half a million citizens of Armenian descent, and
correspondents say their votes may be important in this year’s
presidential elections.

Ahead of the vote, a spokesman for the French foreign ministry called
for “calm,” saying Turkey was a partner and a very important ally
of France.

ARMENIAN COUNCIL OF AMERICA URGES CONGRESSIONAL LAWMAKERS TO REAFFIRM SUPPORT OF ARMENIAN GENOCIDE

armradio.am
24.01.2012 12:42

In light of the historic legislation recently championed by the
French Senate, the Armenian Council of America is urging Congressional
leaders in the United States to honor their pledge in supporting the
Armenian-American citizenry by reaffirming recognition of the Armenian
Genocide, including support for H.R. 304.

The French bill, drafted by Valerie Boyer, a legislator from the
President Sarkozy’s party, has criminalized denial of the Armenian
Genocide with a punishable fine of 45,000 euros and one year of
incarceration. It was passed on January 23 by the French Senate with
an overwhelming majority support of 127 votes.

“As we celebrate this momentous milestone as a nation, as a people,
as proponents of human rights, we call upon our legislators in the
House of Representatives to reaffirm their support for recognition
of the Armenian Genocide,” said Sevak Khatchadorian, Chariman of the
Armenian Council of America.

“The French government has taken a stand against Turkish leaders, who
for years, have succeeded at dictating their personal interests at the
expense of violating human rights and advocating denial of genocide.

This time around, Turkey’s geopolitics and economic threats has not
been able to jeopardize doing the right thing.” said Khatchadorian.

“We also call upon President Obama to honor his pledge to support
recognition of the Armenian Genocide. With more nations supporting
legislation officially recognizing the Armenian Genocide and the
courageous step taken by the French government, it is about time that
that the leader of the free world and the members of Congress fight
for justice and represent the United States as a shining example of
democracy and good will,” added Khatchadorian.

GENOCIDE ARMENIEN/FRANCE : ANKARA DENONCE UN ACTE IRRESPONSABLE
Stephane

armenews.com
mardi 24 janvier 2012

ANKARA, 24 jan 2012 – Le ministère turc des Affaires etrangères a
“condamne fermement” le vote lundi soir par le Senat francais d’une
proposition de loi penalisant la negation du genocide armenien sous
l’Empire ottoman, denoncant un “acte irresponsable” de la part de
la France.

“La Turquie n’hesitera pas a rapidement mettre en oeuvre comme bon lui
semble les mesures prevues” contre la France, souligne un communique,
dans une reference a de nouvelles sanctions contre Paris.

Le document accuse en outre la France d’avoir “transforme en victime”
les relations turco-francaises, pour des visees electoralistes.

“Il s’agit d’une initiative très malencontreuse au nom de la politique
francaise”, ajoute le communique.

Ankara accuse le president francais, Nicolas Sarkozy, qui a voulu ce
texte de loi, de tenter de seduire l’electorat d’origine armenienne,
avant l’election presidentielle du printemps.

Le ministre turc de la Justice Sadullah Ergin, dont le pays a toujours
nie ce genocide, a vu dans le vote des senateurs un “manque total de
respect” et une “grande injustice” envers la Turquie.

Il a indique sur la chaîne d’information CNN Turk que pour la Turquie
cette loi etait “nulle et non avenue”.

Le Senat a ratifie lundi soir par 127 voix contre 86 ce texte deja
adopte par l’Assemblee nationale le 22 decembre.

Pour etre mise en oeuvre, la loi doit maintenant etre promulguee par
le president Sarkozy qui dispose en principe de 15 jours pour ce faire.

La Turquie a reitere aussitôt sa menace de represailles “permanentes”
contre la France, si la loi est promulguee.

“Si la loi est promulguee (…) les consequences seront permanentes.

La France est en train de perdre un partenaire strategique”, a
declare a l’AFP le porte-parole de l’ambassade de Turquie a Paris,
Engin Solakoglu.

L’ambassadeur de Turquie, Tahsin Burcuoglu, va rester en France pour
suivre cette dernière etape du parcours legislatif de ce texte.

“L’ambassadeur reste a Paris mais, si la loi est promulguee, il
partira pour une bien longue duree”, a declare le porte-parole de
l’ambassade de Turquie.

Le diplomate a rappele que l’arsenal de represailles elabore par Ankara
prevoyait un abaissement du niveau de la representation diplomatique
de la Turquie en France.

Le Premier ministre turc Recep Tayyip Erdogan doit prononcer son
discours hebdomadaire, mardi, devant ses deputes au Parlement, et on
s’attend a une violente condamnation du vote francais.