Anatolia news agency, Ankara,
12 Oct 06
TURKISH PREMIER, ARMENIAN PATRIARCH CONDEMN ADOPTION OF GENOCIDE LAW
Ankara, 12 October: “We regret and condemn adoption of the resolution
that makes denial of baseless Armenian genocide allegations a crime
by the French parliament,” announced Turkish Prime Ministry Press
Centre.
Releasing a statement, the Prime Ministry Press Centre qualified this
decision as a “historical inconsistency”, and indicated that this
decision is a big shame when respect to scientific facts and freedom
of thought and expression are taken into consideration.
“Narrow-minded politicians, who have made France live with this
shame, should think about what will happen from now on. Because the
French parliament has contradicted its own allegations regarding the
French history, and trampled the fundamental values it is defending.
Even though this parliament decision is not enough for legalization
of the resolution, this is a grave and historic mistake. There is a
big reaction against this resolution in France, and history will
naturally try those who close their eyes to these reactions and
insist on this wrong step,” it noted.
“Unfortunately, it won’t be possible to control all the results of
this irresponsible attitude of some French politicians. We will
neither accept nor tolerate such an unjust decision. Our public,
including our Armenian citizens with whom we are living together for
centuries, are upset. Mr Prime Minister (Recep Tayyip Erdogan) is
calling on our public, politicians and business circles to behave
with common sense when showing necessary reactions to this decision,”
the statement added.
Armenian Patriarch
On the other hand, Mesrob II, the Patriarch of the Armenians in
Turkey, said that the resolution will strengthen the hands of not
only Turkish but also Armenian extreme nationalist and racist groups.
“The French, who have put several obstacles before Turkey on its road
to the EU, have hit a serious stroke on the very limited dialogue
between Turkey and Armenia. I think that this resolution, adopted by
the French parliament, is anti-democratic because it limits personal
freedom of expression,” he stated.
Mesrob II added that the Armenians in Turkey are monitoring the
developments with concern.

Anatolia news agency, Ankara,
12 Oct 06
TURKEY “MORE EUROPEAN” THAN FRANCE ON ARMENIAN GENOCIDE ISSUE –
MINISTER
Brussels, 12 October: “The attitude Turkey has assumed against
so-called Armenian genocide allegations is more European than the
attitude of France,” Turkish State Minister and Chief Negotiator for
EU talks Ali Babacan who spoke at round-table meeting organized by
think-tank institution “Friends of Europe” in Brussels said on
Thursday [12 October].
Regarding EU’s enlargement process and Turkey’s EU process, Babacan
said that Turkey is ready to cooperate in every type of projects to
eliminate misunderstandings in EU as well as in Turkish public.
Babacan wanted EU to assess Turkey’s membership in long-term by
taking into consideration the economic and social transformation. He
added that Turkey’s EU membership should be based on logic and
realities, not emotions.
“When the issue is considered from EU’s point of view, Turkey’s
membership will strengthen EU’s global actor role. If EU wants to be
a big actor in global level, it can achieve it easily through
Turkey’s membership. Turkey can have important contributions to
extension of peace and prosperity in Balkans, Caucasus, Central Asia
and Middle East,” Babacan noted.
Babacan said: “Democratic institutions in Turkey are functioning
better than those in several EU member countries. Also in economic
aspect, Turkey is important with its location as a bridge between
Asia and Europe as well as being a natural road between Europe and
oil rich Iraq, Iran, Caspian basin and Central Asia. Turkey will have
contributions to EU with its young, qualified and educated
population.”
Regarding adoption the draft law criminalizing denial of so-called
Armenian genocide by French parliament, Babacan said that Turkey’s
attitude towards the issue is more European than the attitude of
France. “Parliaments are not responsible of making decisions about
history. We proposed establishment of a commission to research the
allegations. We opened all documents and military archives and wanted
the same thing (from Armenia) but we did not receive a positive
response,” he added.
Babacan noted: “Turkey, by leaving the history to historians, assumed
a more European attitude. French draft law contradicts freedom of
expression which is one of the most basic values of EU.”

Ayna, Baku
12 Oct 06 pp 1, 2
WAR ONLY WAY TO RESOLVE PROTRACTED KARABAKH CONFLICT – AZERI DAILY
An Azerbaijani newspaper has said that the only possible way to
achieve a breakthrough in the peace talks to resolve the Nagornyy
Karabakh conflict between Azerbaijan and Armenia is to start military
operations in Karabakh. “Now it is considered more acceptable for
Azerbaijan to carry out a military operation in Karabakh. It is
possible to achieve progress only in this way,” the paper said. The
following is the excerpt from Casur Sumarinli’s report by Azerbaijani
newspaper Ayna on 12 October headlined “An alarm on the front line”
and subheaded “It has been ordered to upgrade the military hardware
in the front line units of the Azerbaijani army”. Subheadings are as
published.
A secret alarm was sent to most of the Azerbaijani military units
along the front line yesterday [11 October] and they were put on high
alert. Ayna obtained information saying that the alarm was mainly
intended for military units in Tartar and Agdam districts. It is not
known yet if the alarm was given by the Defence Ministry or the corps
command. We could not confirm the information since it was the end of
the day, but the source of the information insisted that the
country’s leadership had given the instruction to put the troops on
high alert to check the level of their preparedness.
Ayna has learnt that President Ilham Aliyev has given special
instructions to upgrade the weapons and military hardware in the
units on the front line. It is also reported that the process of
replacing military hardware has already started. Some reports say
that it is also on the agenda to increase the number of troops on the
front line.
Will there be war?
Independent experts are saying that the relations between Azerbaijan
and Armenia are tense. It is not ruled out either that these
relations may end up with war at any time. It is true that the peace
talks between the sides resumed at the level of foreign ministers
after several months’ break. But experts believe that these talks are
“contacts for the sake of contacts”. The sides are clearly confident
that they will not make any serious progress in the talks. But the
existing situation cannot last long like this. Therefore, it is
necessary to take certain extraordinary steps.
Observations show that an extraordinary incident should necessarily
happen on the front line. Only after this incident the sides can
intensify their efforts and wish to resolve the conflict as soon as
possible.
Political analysts believe that it will be inevitable to write a new
scenario for the next round of talks if Azerbaijan fully proves its
rightness in the Karabakh peace talks, insists on the liberation of
the occupied territories and convinces the international community,
especially the co-chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group of its efforts. The
talk is about “an extraordinary incident” that would enable the
liberation of the occupied Azerbaijani territories.
Observations show that the Armenians are far from making any
concessions at this point of time, taking advantage of their
victorious position. This challenges the success of the peace talks
on the settlement of the conflict. That is why such an incident
should happen that the Armenians have to sit at a negotiating table
and accept what Azerbaijan dictates. Experts think that the two
principles, that the parties are divided on, can also be resolved in
this case.
Based on the international experience experts say that “certain
incidents” are required to change the situation that has been
existing in a conflict zone for a long time. For example, Azerbaijan
may have started small-scale military operations in Karabakh under
the pretext of fires. Then, it would have been interesting for us to
find out what the international community thinks about it.
For all these reasons now it is considered more acceptable for
Azerbaijan to carry out a military operation in Karabakh. It is
possible to achieve progress only in this way.
Azeri community in Karabakh made official
The Azerbaijani community of Nagornyy Karabakh has become an entity
with official registration, as the Justice Ministry registered the
community as a public association called the Community of
Azerbaijanis of Nagornyy Karabakh.
Observers say that registering this community aims to add a new
“colour” to the peace talks on the settlement of the Karabakh
conflict because representatives of the Armenian and Azerbaijani
communities [of Nagornyy Karabakh] may be involved in the talks.

La Stampa website, Turin,
8 Oct 06
ARMENIAN QUESTION ADDS TENSION TO POPE’S TURKEY VISIT – ITALIAN DAILY
“Genocide of Armenians is Turkish trap for Pope”
by Giacomo Galeazzi
Vatican City: [Pope] Benedict XVI has “reopened” the Armenian
question, in defence of the freedom of religious minorities. Vatican
diplomats are reassuring the Turkish authorities, and are frantically
working to avert the risks of a new diplomatic incident with a
country which has a Muslim majority. “The trip to Turkey is a great
opportunity to cool down tensions by means of talks,” officials in
the Vatican have said, damping down tensions, while signs of concern
are coming in from Turkey’s episcopate, in light of the serious
misunderstandings and the row which followed the Pope’s references to
Islam in Bavaria.
On the afternoon of 30 November, in Istanbul, the Pope is to meet
with the Armenian apostolic patriarch, Mesrop II. “It is an important
step towards the unity of Christians, and it must in no way be
interpreted as a hostile action with regard to the government in
Ankara,” explained the archbishop at the papal court, Francesco
Gioia, who is in the front line in inter-religious dialogue. However,
the wounds caused by the ethnic and religious genocide of the
Armenian people, for which Turkey has never wanted to acknowledge
responsibility, are still open. The Secretary of State’s office is
trying to avert and attenuate the possible negative repercussions.
Sources at the third loggia of the Apostolic Palace [as received]
have highlighted the fact that the European Parliament has just
decided to eliminate acknowledgment of the Armenian genocide from the
list of preconditions for Ankara’s membership of the European Union
(unlike the terms of the first version of the text), whilst still
underlining the fact that it is “indispensable” for Turkey to deal
with the question. “The invitation to the Pontiff is a brave decision
by the Turkish Government, and the constructive intention in it
should be appreciated – Gioia specified – As well as the Armenian
apostolic patriarch, Benedict XVI will also meet in Turkey with the
spiritual leaders of the other minorities: the Syrian Orthodox
archbishop, the representatives of the evangelical churches, and the
Greek Orthodox patriarch.”
A decision which is “a determined one, which will lift the veil on a
very severe situation,” to the extent of making Joseph Ratzinger
[Pope Benedict XVI] the spokesman of the claims of all Christians, as
the theologist Don Gianni Baget Bozzo underlined. “Although he will
not make an explicit mention of the extermination of a million and a
half Armenians, which was carried out in 1915 by the Young Turks –
argues Baget Bozzo – by meeting in Istanbul with Patriarch Mesrop II,
the Holy Father is turning the spotlight on the lack of respect for
religious freedom, and on the denial of the rights of worshippers.”
All the more so given that Benedict XVI has always spoken very clear
words of condemnation of genocide. “Embracing the patriarch will be a
testimony of truth with regard to the sacrifice and the suffering of
the Armenian community – said Luigi Amicone, a member of CL
[right-wing religious movement Communion and Liberation], who is the
editor-in-chief of the theo-con weekly Tempi.
As already happened in the case of the speech in Regensburg on
Mohammed, the Pontiff is showing that he is not scared of
exploitation for political purposes, which will also be targeted at
this historic gesture on his part.” Card Pio Laghi observed that the
Pope’s thoughts will be directed at the suffering which the Armenian
people has endured in the name of the Christian faith, “in the years
of the terrible persecution which remains in history under the sadly
meaningful name of ‘Metz Yeghern,’ the great evil.”
So it will be a meeting which, at the same time, is “a sign of
gratitude and a concrete intervention” for the Armenians and the
other Christians who, in the land of Islam, “continue to bear
witness, still today, to their faithfulness to the Gospel.” Genocide,
sources at the papal court remarked, represents one of the darkest
and most forgotten chapters of the last century. Joseph Ratzinger
intends to re-read it not so as to condemn Turkey, but in order to
pay tribute to those who, under the Ottoman Empire, sacrificed their
lives to their faith in Christ, and so as to lay claim to the rights
which are denied to today’s believers. He is inspired by the memory
of the denunciation by [Pope] Leo XIII of the general silence over
the Armenian tragedy, and Benedict XV’s cry of pain over the “very
wretched people of Armenia.” This closeness, and this solidarity will
be the guidelines at the meeting in Istanbul. “But his gesture also
has an ‘internal’ significance, inasmuch as it serves to call for
greater efforts to reconstitute unity between Christians,” Laghi made
clear.

Mediamax, Armenia
Oct 12 2006
NATO ENVOY PRAISES ARMENIA’S ACHIEVEMENTS
Yerevan, 12 October: “NATO is satisfied with the process and pace of
the implementation of the Individual Partnership Action Plan [IPAP]
between Armenia and the alliance,” the special representative of the
NATO secretary-general for the South Caucasus, Robert Simmons, said
in Yerevan today.
Simmons said this at a joint news conference with Armenian Foreign
Minister Vardan Oskanyan.
He noted that “Armenia succeeded in achieving progress in the
implementation of the key directions of the IPAP”.
Simmons said that NATO would attentively follow the 2007
parliamentary elections in Armenia and added the conduct of free and
fair elections was one of the commitments under the IPAP.
Armenian Foreign Minister Vardan Oskanyan said that the NATO
information centre, which was opened in Yerevan on 11 October, would
play a significant role in the process of informing the Armenian
public about NATO and Armenia-NATO relations.

Xinhua News Agency , China
October 13, 2006 Friday 2:00 PM EST
Turkish president expresses sadness over France’s Armenian genocide
bill
Turkish President Ahmet Necdet Sezer expressed sadness over a French
bill that would make it a crime to deny Turks committed genocide
against Armenians, the semi- official Anatolia news agency reported
on Friday.
The president felt deeply sad over the French national assembly ‘s
approval of the bill on Thursday, Sermet Atacanli, a senior advisor
to President Sezer was quoted as saying.
“Mr. President hopes that the bill would be received with logic in
the next legislative level and hopes that the bill would not become
an actual law in France,” Atacanli said.
The advisor noted that Sezer wishes the Turkish-French relations
would not get hurt and basic rights of freedom of expression would
not be negatively affected by the bill.
In addition, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan also
condemned the approval of the controversial bill, saying, “France has
stained its own history and democracy by adopting the bill about
so-called Armenian genocide.”
Meanwhile, Erdogan called on people to be calm over boycotting
French-made products.
“Some groups call on people to boycott French-made products. Will it
be really effective? Actually, we should be calm and take steps
consciously,” said Erdogan.
“There are nearly 500,000 Turks living in France. They should be as
influential as Armenians,” he stressed.
Despite warnings from Ankara that it would hurt the bilateral
relations between Turkey and France, French lawmakers on Thursday
voted 106 against 19 for the bill, which calls for up to a year in
prison and fines of up to 56,000 U.S. dollars for anyone who denies
the Armenian genocide at the hands of Ottoman Turk during World War
I.
The bill must be passed by the Senate and signed by French President
Jacques Chirac.
Turkey has always denied that up to 1.5 million Armenians were
subject to genocide in the period between 1915 and 1923.
However, it does acknowledge that up to 300,000 Armenians died during
fighting and efforts to relocate populations away from the war zone
in eastern Turkey.
According to the Zaman daily, Turkey is the fifth largest customer of
French goods outside the European Union. France’s export to Turkey
values at 5.9 billion dollars while its import from Turkey remains at
3.8 billion dollars.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

The Irish Times
October 13, 2006 Friday
Armenian dissident sees a threat to free speech
by Nicholas Birch in Istanbul
Turkey: Hrant Dink knows all about freedom of speech and the lack of
it.
An Armenian Turk who edits the bilingual Istanbul-based weekly Agos,
he is the only person to have been convicted so far under a notorious
law that has been used to bring Nobel prize-winner Orhan Pamuk and
dozens of others to trial.
With a six-month suspended sentence under his belt for “insulting
Turkishness”, Dink now faces up to three years’ prison under the same
law for describing the deaths of at least 600,000 Armenians in 1915
as “genocide”. Not that that has stopped him criticising the French
parliament’s vote yesterday morning to make denying genocide a
punishable offence.
“If this law passes through the senate, I will go to France and say
that there was no genocide, even if it pains me to say so,” he said.
“There is no difference in mentality between the Turkish and French
laws. Let French and Turkish justice compete to see which of them can
judge me faster.”
Like other liberals here, Dink sees both pieces of legislation as
flagrant breaches of the European Convention on Human Rights, which
argues that freedom of speech can only be limited if national
security, territorial integrity or public safety is under threat.
But his greatest concern is that this slew of legislation and
counter-legislation will stifle the rapidly growing debate in Turkey
on the reality of 1915.
The biggest taboo in a country political analyst Fuat Keyman
describes as “founded on historical amnesia”, the Armenian genocide
is the subject of an increasing number of books, exhibitions and
academic conferences. “Beneath the bluster, the Turkish
establishment’s position is crumbling,” says Halil Berktay, referring
to the state’s insistence that Armenians were the victims of a civil
war that killed more Muslims.
A historian at Istanbul’s Sabanci University, Berktay was the target
of months of death threats in 2000 when he became the first Turkish
historian publicly to describe 1915 as a genocide.
He doesn’t like using the word, though. “Turks are furious when you
use it, Armenians when you don’t”, he said. “What is needed is to
find common ground, but the climate of polarisation makes that near
impossible.”
For him, the meddling of any parliament in the matter is “no better
than those Turkish policemen who used to raid tourist hotels at night
to check couples were married.”
The author of a powerfully moving 2005 memoir of her grandmother, who
told her late in her life that she was an Armenian who converted to
Islam in 1915, Istanbul lawyer Fethiye Cetin agrees: “These debates
over terminology and statistics are barren,”, she says. “They hide
the lives and deaths of individuals and do nothing to encourage
people to listen.”

The Herald (Glasgow)
October 13, 2006
Controversial Turkish writer wins;
Nobel Award’s ‘unfortunate’ timing criticised
by PHIL MILLER
COURTING TROUBLE: Turkish novelist Orhan Pamuk was prosecuted for
insulting his country. Picture: Tolga Bozoglu/EPA
ATURKISH novelist, who was once prosecuted for insulting his country,
has won the Nobel prize for literature.
Orhan Pamuk, who had been heavily tipped to win literature’s leading
prize, was honoured by the Swedish Academy. It said that in his
“quest for the melancholic soul of his native city [Istanbul] he has
discovered new symbols for the clash and interlacing of cultures”.
However, the award was criticised for being a “political” rather than
a cultural decision, especially as it came on the day that France’s
parliament approved a Bill making it a crime to deny Armenians
suffered genocide at the hands of the Ottoman Turks.
The European Union said the French parliament’s approval of the Bill
could harm efforts to end decades of dispute over the killings.
Ankara said the French lower house vote was a severe blow to
French-Turkish ties and its Economics Minister Ali Babacan, the man
leading EU entry talks with Brussels, said he could not rule out
consequences for French firms.
A European Commission spokeswoman noted the Bill still needed upper
house approval and said EU Enlargement Commissioner Olli Rehn had
often warned it would damage efforts in Turkey and Armenia to resolve
the dispute.
Pamuk, 54, was prosecuted inIstanbul for “insulting Turkishness”
after he told a Swiss newspaper Turkey was unwilling to deal with two
of the most divisive episodes in its recent history: the massacre of
Armenians during the First World War and guerrilla fighting in
Turkey’s Kurdish south-east.
The charges against the writer were dropped only in January, ending a
trial that outraged some Western observers and cast doubt on Turkey’s
commitment to free speech.
“Thirty-thousand Kurds and one million Armenians were killed in these
lands, and nobody but me dares to talk about it, ” Pamuk said in the
interview.
Horace Engdahl, head of the Swedish Academy, yesterday maintained
that Pamuk’s political position had not affected the Nobel decision.
“It could of course lead to some political turbulence but we are not
interested in that, Mr Engdahl said. “He is a controversial person in
his own country, but on the other hand so are almost all of our prize
winners.”
Atilla Koc, culture minister of Turkey, said he was delighted by the
news. However, Pinar Kur, a leading Turkish novelist, said: “It is
known, in Turkey and abroad, that this prize is much more related to
politics than to literature. It is very unfortunate that this prize
announcement was made on the same day as the [Armenian genocide] Bill
in France.”
Suat Kiniklioglu, director of the German Marshall Fund’s new office
in Ankara, said of Pamuk: “I believe his comments on the Armenian
genocide have been influential in winning this prize. Many Turks will
see it in this way too and will not be cheering.
“I do not believe he was chosen purely on the basis of his artistic
capacity.”
Mr Engdahl said Pamuk was selected because he had “enlarged the roots
of the contemporary novel” through his links to both Western and
Eastern culture.
“This means he has stolen the novel from us Westerners and has
transformed it to something different from what we have ever seen
before.”
Pamuk’s prize is the first for a writer from a mainly Muslim country
since 1988 when the Nobel went to Naguib Mahfouz, of Egypt.
In its citation, the academy said Pamuk’s international breakthrough
came with his third novel, The White Castle, a historical novel set
in 17thcentury Istanbul. Mr Engdahl added: “He has a flowing
imagination and impressive ingenuity.”
Pamuk will receive a 10m kronor (GBP1.1m) cheque, a gold medal and
diploma.

Financial Times (London, England)
October 13, 2006 Friday
London Edition 2
Award for Turkish writer strikes a blow for freedom of speech
By QUENTIN PEEL
The award of the Nobel Prize for literature to Orhan Pamuk, the
Turkish novelist, is a very good thing for freedom of speech and a
great achievement for Turkey.
It comes at a moment when freedom of speech is under serious attack
around the world: from the assassination of Anna Politkovskaya, the
campaigning Russian journalist, in Moscow on Sunday, to the vote in
the French national assembly yesterday seeking to make it a crime for
anyone to deny that Armenians suffered genocide in Turkey during the
first world war.
Free debate about Islam is under fire in Europe, as is free debate
about Israel in the US. Those who would like to see a clash of
civilisations seem equally intent on suppressing open and tolerant
discussion.
Mr Pamuk is a good choice for the Nobel prize because of his writing.
He belongs to a modern Turkish literary tradition – republican,
secular, European-minded – that is deeply embedded in the history of
his country. He shines a light on the tensions between past and
present, secularism and Islam, and the “clash and interlacing of
cultures”, as the citation says. His novels make a uniquely Turkish
contribution to world literature.
Yet his choice is also political, because he was charged last
December in Istanbul under article 301 of the Turkish penal code with
insulting “Turkishness, the republic and state institutions”: he
dared to criticise his country for denying its historical
responsibility in the massacre of Armenians and Kurds. The case was
dropped, but the absurd and archaic law remains.
Turkey fails to face up to the systematic persecution and massacre of
the Armenians that began in 1915. The subject is glossed over in
Turkish debate and in Turkish history books. For the Armenian
diaspora it is seen as a fundamental historical injustice. It is a
real political question in many parts of Europe (especially France)
and America that will not simply disappear by being ignored. But the
idea of seeking to criminalise “denial” of a genocide, as the French
parliamentarians would do, is itself intolerant and a denial of free
speech.
Catherine Colonna, the French minister for Europe, said yesterday it
was for historians, not legislators, to “illuminate history”. You
cannot rewrite history books by law, she said.
The French assembly’s vote on the Armenian resolution was feeble,
even if few dared oppose it. The overwhelming majority stayed away,
apparently out of fear at being seen to vote either way. If the
Senate acts responsibly, it will simply kill the bill.
There is a danger that popular reaction in Turkey, stoked by
nationalists, will see both the French vote, and the Nobel Prize for
Mr Pamuk, as all part of some international conspiracy. That is quite
wrong.
Mr Pamuk and fellow writers and intellectuals in Turkey have spoken
out against the French bill. They are as appalled by the idea of
criminalising genocide denial as they are by article 301 in their own
country’s penal code, criminalising anyone who dares use the word.
They also warn against another possible European reaction: to use
article 301, and its exploitation by a small group of Turkish
nationalists, as a reason to postpone or block Ankara’s EU membership
application. That is precisely what the nationalists want. Indeed,
the real conspiracy may be between Turkish and Armenian nationalists,
both of whom want to preserve the old enmity, and keep Turkey out of
the EU, rather than heal the wounds of history.

Financial Times (London, England)
October 13, 2006 Friday
London Edition 2
Turkey’s EU bid hit by French bill on Armenians
By MARTIN ARNOLD, VINCENT BOLAND, DANIEL DOMBEY and GEORGE PARKER
Turkey’s prospects of joining the European Union took a heavy blow
last night when France’s National Assembly approved a bill that
outraged Ankara and that critics say will set back the cause of
reform within Turkey.
The French legislation, which could still be blocked by the Senate,
would make it a crime to deny that Armenians were the victims of
genocide in the last years of the Ottoman Empire.
The bill was read in Turkey as a sign that France was now permanently
opposed to Ankara’s bid to join the EU.
Bulent Arinc, the parliamentary speaker, criticised France’s “hostile
attitude” towards Turkey. “This is a shameful decision. We are very
sorry to see that this (bill) was passed only because of internal
(French) politics.”
Turkey denies genocide, and the judicial authorities have prosecuted
writers who have used the term to describe thekillings of Armenians.
Opinion polls show a majority of French voters oppose Turkish
membership. The issue is sensitive in France because of the country’s
450,000-strong Armenian community, which has grown rich and
influential.
Jacques Chirac, the French president, favours Turkish accession to
the EU but prominent ministers such as Nicolas Sarkozy are opposed.
Segolene Royal, the Socialists’ leading presidential candidate, has
been non-committal, saying she would defer to public opinion on the
question.
But Mr Chirac said on a visit to Armenia this month that Turkish
recognition of the Armenian genocide should become a pre-condition of
EU membership.
Additional reporting by George Parker in Brussels and Daniel Dombey
in London