GENOCIDE ARMENIEN: LE SUSPENSE RESTE ENTIER SUR LE VOTE DU TEXTE SOCIALISTE
Agence France Presse
11 octobre 2006 mercredi
(Avant-Papier)
Le suspense reste entier sur l’adoption par les deputes de la
proposition de loi socialiste rendant passible de prison la negation
du genocide armenien, qui est examine jeudi par l’Assemblee nationale.
Ankara, qui refute categoriquement le terme de genocide, menace la
France de retorsions economiques alors que plusieurs deputes, dont le
rapporteur Christophe Masse (PS), estime que le texte “a de grandes
chances d’etre adopte”.
L’eventuelle adoption de cette loi suscite l’inquietude des entreprises
francaises implantees en Turquie. La France est le 5e fournisseur de
la Turquie avec 4,7 milliards d’euros d’exportations.
A tel point que Christine Lagarde (Commerce exterieur) a estime
mercredi que “clairement, on est en train de faire de cet enjeu
economique pour la France, une cause electoraliste qui ne (lui)
paraît pas justifiee”.
Quelques dizaines de Turcs ont manifeste mercredi matin devant
l’Assemblee, tandis que le Conseil de coordination des organisations
armeniennes de France (CCAF) a appele a un rassemblement jeudi matin.
Les services de securite de l’Assemblee sont d’ores et deja sur le
qui-vive pour eviter tout debordement d’autant plus qu’un autre texte
sensible, portant sur les intermittents du spectacle, doit egalement
etre discute jeudi matin.
Le 18 mai, lors du premier examen du texte, interrompu faute de
temps, des membres de la communaute armenienne, fait rarissime,
avaient manifeste depuis les tribunes du public.
La communaute d’origine armenienne, estimee a 500.000 personnes,
represente un electorat non negligeable.
Dans ce contexte, le gouvernement joue la moderation, soulignant que
le texte ne “l’engage pas”, tandis que sa majorite UMP est embarrassee.
Les uns, comme leur chef de file, Bernard Accoyer, insistent sur la
necessite de ne pas legiferer sur l’histoire. “Notre responsabilite
de parlementaires est de ne pas alimenter dans les hemicycles et les
pretoires une guerre des memoires declenchee par les associations
communautaristes, usant des lois memorielles”, ecrit M. Accoyer,
dans une tribune au Figaro a paraître jeudi.
Les autres, comme Patrick Devedjian, depute d’origine armenienne et
conseiller du president de l’UMP, Nicolas Sarkozy, n’hesiteront pas
une seconde pour voter le texte.
Pour eviter toute nouvelle polemique avec les historiens, M. Devedjian
a depose un amendement excluant du champ de la loi “les recherches
scolaires, universitaires ou scientifiques”.
Cet amendement ne fait pas l’affaire du PS, car, selon M. Masse,
“il denature complètement le texte et ouvre la porte a d’enormes
problèmes, les negationnistes de la Shoah pouvant s’en emparer”.
L’unanimite ne règne pas non plus chez les socialistes. Si Segolène
Royal approuve la proposition, d’autres comme Jack Lang la rejettent.
Le texte a cependant de bonnes chances d’etre adopte jeudi. Les deputes
qui y sont favorables devraient se deplacer en masse pour le voter,
les autres preferant ne pas participer au vote.
Mais meme adoptee, la proposition sera loin d’avoir acheve son parcours
parlementaire. Elle devra encore etre inscrite a l’ordre du jour du
Senat où sont adoption est incertaine.
La proposition complète la loi de 2001 de reconnaissance du
genocide armenien par un volet penal punissant sa negation d’un an
d’emprisonnement et de 45.000 euros d’amende.
Les Armeniens estiment que jusqu’a 1,5 million des leurs ont peri
dans un genocide perpetre par les Turcs sous l’empire ottoman entre
1915 et 1917. Ankara recuse ces accusations.
–Boundary_(ID_d+/Dg7g3F6Ud7saGY/4BL w)–

PRESIDENTIAL HOPEFUL ROYAL SAYS TURKEY MUST ACKNOWLEDGE ARMENIAN KILLINGS AS GENOCIDE
By Emmanuel Georges-Picot, Associated Press Writer
Associated Press Worldstream
October 11, 2006 Wednesday
French presidential hopeful Segolene Royal said Wednesday that Turkey
must recognize the mass killing of Armenians in the early 20th Century
as a genocide if it hopes to join the European Union.
Royal, a Socialist, also said she was in favor of a bill to go before
France’s parliament Thursday that would make it a crime to deny that
the killings amounted to genocide.
Turkish anger over the bill forced a delay in the initial debate, which
had been set for May, as lawmakers caved in to warnings by Turkish
authorities that bilateral ties would suffer if the bill became law.
Turkish Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul, commenting Wednesday on
the bill, said France would compromise its values if the measure
became law.
“We’ve done everything we can,” Gul said. “If this passes, Turkey will
lose nothing. But France will first lose Turkey … it will turn into
a country that throws people in jail for expressing their thoughts, for
expressing their ideas, for stating what is in historical documents.”
Royal, a lawmaker hoping for the Socialist Party’s nomination as 2007
presidential candidate, aligned herself with the official stance
that Turkey must recognize the killings as genocide if it wants
EU membership.
“It is obvious that if Turkey wants to confirm its candidacy and one
day enter Europe, it is obvious that it must recognize the Armenian
genocide,” she said at a news conference called to set out her
positions on Europe.
She added that she was for the legislation going before parliament.
“We have no lessons to give anyone and, at the same time, something
has to be done.”
On other issues, Royal called for Europe to immediately establish aid
to the Palestinian territories, and supported continued diplomatic
efforts to counter fears that Iran is looking to develop nuclear arms.
Meanwhile, about 40 Turkish demonstrators gathered at the Place de la
Concorde, facing the National Assembly, to denounce the bill making
it a crime to deny Armenian genocide.
“The Armenian genocide is an imperialist lie,” said Yalcin Buyukdagh,
who identified himself as the presidential counsel of the Workers
Party in Turkey.
“If France votes ‘yes’ to this law, it will have officially taken a
position as an enemy of Turkey,” he said.
In Ankara, lawmakers, looking to retaliate against Paris, discussed
proposals to recognize an “Algerian genocide” during France’s colonial
rule there, which ended in 1962 after a brutal war.
Armenians claim that as many as 1.5 million of their ancestors were
killed between 1915-1923 in an organized campaign to force them out
of eastern Turkey. However, Turkey contends that a large number of
people died in civil unrest during the collapse of the Ottoman Empire.
French President Jacques Chirac visited the Armenian capital of
Yerevan the first by a French president less than two weeks ago and
urged Turkey to acknowledge a genocide.
Associated Press Writer Emily Withrow in Paris contributed to this
report.

SERBIA BEATS ARMENIA 3-0 TO LEAD EURO 2008 QUALIFYING IN GROUP A
Associated Press Worldstream
October 11, 2006 Wednesday
Serbia beat Armenia 3-0 on Wednesday to lead Group A in qualifying
for the European Championship.
Captain Dejan Stankovic converted a penalty kick in the 54th minute
after Armenia goalkeeper Gevorg Kasparov fouled forward Nikola Zigic.
Danko Lazovic made it 2-0 in the 61st with a header on a cross by
Ivica Dragutinovic.
Zigic also headed in the third goal in injury time from a cross by
Lazovic. It was Zigic’s third goal in four qualifiers.
Marko Pantelic missed a penalty in the 14th after Zigic was fouled
again. While Armenia defender Rafael Nazaryan was sent off for two
yellow cards in the 75th.
“We made it hard for us after missing so many chances in the first
half,” Stankovic said.
Pantelic, who was replaced in the second half by Lazovic, hit the
post in the 16th.
Armenia, which held Finland 0-0 on Saturday, rarely ventured into
Serbia’s half.
Serbia leads the group with 10 points, two ahead of Finland, which
beat Kazakhstan 2-0 Wednesday.
Lineups:
Serbia: Vladimir Stojkovic; Igor Duljaj, Mladen Krstajic, Milan
Stepanov, Ivica Dragutinovic, Nenad Kovacevic, Aleksandar Trisovic
(Sasa Ilic, 46), Ognjen Koroman (Ivan Ergic, 71), Dejan Stankovic,
Nikola Zigic, Marko Pantelic (Danko Lazovic, 46).
Armenia: Gevorg Kasparov; Sargis Hovsepian, Robert Arzumanian, Karen
Dokhoian, Rafael Nazaryan, Yegishe Melikian, Boris Malkonyan, Agvan
Mkrtcyan, Aram Hakobyan (Artur Minasian, 70), Edgar Manucharyan,
Armen Shahgeldiyan (Nshan Erzrumian, 65.)

FIRST TURKISH GROUND FORCES ARRIVE IN LEBANON FOR PEACEKEEPING IN THE SOUTH
Associated Press Worldstream
October 10, 2006 Tuesday
The vanguard of Turkey’s ground forces arrived Tuesday to take part
in peacekeeping in south Lebanon, becoming the first troops from a
Muslim country to deploy in the UN operation.
The seven officers are the first of 237 Turkish soldiers who will be
part of an engineering company that will deploy near Tyre to help
rebuild bridges and roads damaged during the 34-day war between
Hezbollah militants and Israel.
Turkish government spokesman Cemil Cicek said Tuesday that the total
number of Turkish personnel would ultimately reach 681 , including
sailors as well as the members of the engineer company.
Turkey has already sent a frigate to help an international naval
force monitor the Lebanese coast, and plans to send other ships.
Turkey is a predominantly Muslim country with close ties with Israel
and Arab states. Its contribution to the peacekeeping force was met
with opposition in the Turkish parliament for fear of Turkish troops
being drawn into fighting with fellow Muslims to protect Israel.
Lebanon’s ethnic Armenians community also has protested the dispatching
of Turkish troops, invoking memories of Ottoman rule of Arab countries
and the 1915 mass deaths that Armenians contend was genocide by Turkey.

TURKEY CALLS ON EU TO DENOUNCE ARMENIAN GENOCIDE BILL IN FRANCE
By Selcan Hacaoglu, Associated Press Writer
Associated Press Worldstream
October 10, 2006 Tuesday
Turkey called Monday on the European Union to oppose French legislation
that would outlaw denials that World War I-era killings of Armenians
amounted to genocide.
Lawmakers in France, which has some 400,000 citizens of Armenian
origin, have introduced a bill to penalize Armenian genocide denial
with fines and jail terms. Turkey, which says the deaths came during
a period of civil unrest and don’t constitute genocide, asked the
European bloc it seeks to join to weigh in on its side.
“We expect the European Union to express its opposition against
such a development that restricts freedom of expression in France,
because it contradicts key values of the EU,” said Justice Minister
Cemil Cicek, who also serves as the government’s spokesman.
Armenians claim that as many as 1.5 million of their ancestors were
killed between 1915-1923 in an organized campaign to force them out
of eastern Turkey and have pushed for recognition of the killings
around the world as genocide.
Turkey acknowledges that large numbers of Armenians died, but says
the overall figure is inflated and that the deaths occurred in the
civil unrest during the collapse of the Ottoman Empire.
Turkey Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has sought the help of
French companies doing business in Turkey to prevent the approval
of the bill and tensions between Turkey and France have been rising
before Thursday’s debate by French lawmakers in the lower house.
Under the bill, people who contest that there was an Armenian genocide
would risk up to a year in prison and fines of up to $57,000.
In May, French lawmakers had caved in to pressure from Turkey and
put off the sensitive debate on the issue in the lower house.
At the time, Turkish legislators also froze a retaliatory bill which
said anyone who denied that the French committed genocide in Algeria,
a former French colony, could be put in jail and fined. Turkish
lawmakers are now scheduled to re-debate that bill Wednesday.
Meanwhile, a Turkish legislator Koksal Toptan called for a boycott
of French goods.
Last week, Erdogan turned down a series of proposals for reconciliation
by French Interior Minister and presidential hopeful Nicolas Sarkozy,
his office said Monday.
Among the demands of Sarkozy, who is staunchly opposed to EU membership
for Turkey, were opening the Turkish-Armenian border and dropping a
Turkish condition that only historians should represent both sides in a
joint research committee. Turkey has accused Armenia of not responding
to Turkish initiatives to jointly research the mass killings.
Last week, Turkey said it was out of the question to accept a call
by French President Jacques Chirac for Ankara to acknowledge the mass
killings of Armenians in the early 20th century as genocide.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

PROJET DE LOI SUR LE GENOCIDE ARMENIEN : NOUVEL APPEL DE LA TURQUIE
Agence France Presse
11 octobre 2006 mercredi 5:02 PM GMT
Le ministre turc des Affaires etrangères, Abdullah Gul, a une nouvelle
fois appele mercredi la France a ne pas adopter un projet de loi
controverse qui punirait la negation du genocide armenien pendant la
Première Guerre mondiale, a la veille de l’examen du texte.
“J’espère que la France, patrie de la liberte où chacun peut librement
exprimer ses opinions, ne deviendra pas un pays où des gens sont
emprisonnes pour avoir exprime leurs opinions et publie des documents”,
a declare M. Gul a des journalistes a Ankara.
“Si le projet de loi est adopte, la Turquie ne perdra rien, mais
la France perdra non seulement la Turquie, mais aussi quelque chose
d’elle-meme”, a affirme le chef de la diplomatie turque.
L’Assemblee nationale francaise doit voter jeudi sur le projet de
loi depose par le Parti socialiste, qui prevoit que toute personne
niant la realite du genocide armenien sera punie d’un an de prison
et d’une amende de 45.000 euros.
Les Armeniens estiment que jusqu’a 1,5 million des leurs ont peri
dans un genocide orchestre par l’Empire ottoman entre 1915 et 1917.
La Turquie declare qu’il y a eu des massacres de part et d’autre et
recuse avec vigueur les accusations de genocide.
Si le projet de loi est approuve par les deputes a l’Assemblee
nationale, il devra encore, pour entrer en vigueur, etre approuve
par le Senat, un processus qui devrait prendre beaucoup de temps.
Ankara, très irrite par le projet de loi socialiste, a averti que
son adoption porterait un coup sevère aux relations bilaterales et
que les firmes francaises se verraient dans ce cas exclues de marches
potentiellement fructueux.
Les responsables turcs estiment generalement que le depôt du projet
de loi a ete dicte par des considerations de politique interieure
francaise et constitue un geste a l’adresse de la communaute armenienne
avant les elections de 2007.
La communaute armenienne de France compte quelque 500.000 personnes,
un electorat qui n’est pas negligeable.
Le gouvernement francais s’est dissocie du projet de loi, declarant
qu’il n’etait “pas necessaire”. Le parti de droite majoritaire,
l’Union pour un mouvement populaire (UMP), est embarrasse, certains
de ses deputes se declarant pret a voter pour le texte socialiste.
L’unanimite ne règne pas non plus au Parti socialiste, où certains
deputes sont hostiles au projet de loi.
En Turquie, en revanche, toutes les tendances politiques sont unies
dans une meme condamnation du texte.
–Boundary_(ID_ChIChfApRRPESaq5SBGSGQ)–

GENOCIDE ARMENIEN: “NE PAS ALIMENTER UNE GUERRE DES MEMOIRES” (ACCOYER, UMP)
Agence France Presse
11 octobre 2006 mercredi 5:02 PM GMT
Le president du groupe UMP a l’Assemblee nationale Bernard Accoyer a
souhaite que les deputes n’alimentent pas “une guerre des memoires”,
dans une tribune au Figaro de jeudi sur la proposition de loi PS
penalisant la negation du genocide armenien.
“Notre responsabilite de parlementaires est de ne pas alimenter dans
les hemicycles et les pretoires une guerre des memoires declenchee
par des associations communautaristes, usant des lois memorielles”,
ecrit M. Accoyer.
“Ce n’est pas en cherchant a legaliser la verite historique, a encadrer
les travaux et l’expression des historiens et des chercheurs, que
l’on empechera certains de les contester” a-t-il ajoute.
Pour lui, “faire l’apologie d’un genocide, tel que le genocide
armenien, appeler a la violence et a la haine envers une communaute
par des manifestations de rue, est un delit d’ores et deja sanctionne
par notre code penal”.
Les deputes examineront jeudi la proposition de loi du PS qui vise
a completer celle de 2001 qualifiant de genocide les massacres
d’Armeniens de 1915. Le texte socialiste fait de la negation du
genocide un delit punissable d’un an d’emprisonnement et de 45.000
euros d’amende.

SLOVAK POLICE BREAK UP OUR GANGS OF PEOPLE SMUGGLERS
Czech News Agency
October 10, 2006 Tuesday
Bratislava, Oct 10 (CTK) – The Slovak police have broken up four
groups of people smugglers at various places in Slovakia since the
beginning of September, police vice-president Michal Kopcik told
reporters today. One of the groups also operated in the neighbouring
Czech Republic and Austria and its members helped refugees from local
asylum camps cross the border westwards, Kopcik said.
The police have accused more than 30 people, including foreigners.
Some of them face up to ten years in prison, if found guilty. The
leader of the group that smuggled illegal migrants further to western
Europe was a Georgian who has applied for asylum in Slovakia. The
10-member group reportedly escorted at least a hundred people
across the green border. Three of the ten accused have been taken
into custody. Another gang’s operation was broken up in the regions
of Bratislava and Presov, east Slovakia. In this case, the gang’s
12 accused members include two Vietnamese with a permanent stay in
Slovakia, another two with a permanent stay in the Czech Republic,
and one Czech. The gang smuggled at least 350 people, mostly of Asian
origin, and earner almost 6 million crowns, Kopcik said. The third
gang, broken up in east Slovakia, has smuggled at least 164 people,
mainly Moldovans and Chinese, to Slovakia from Ukraine. The gang
has also secured the illegal migrants’ escort across Slovakia. The
last gang was caught smuggling mainly citizens of former Soviet
Union countries across the border with Ukraine and Hungary. The six
accused include two Armenians and an Indian. ($1=29.386 Slovak crowns)

TURKEY’S PM TALKS TOUGH ON EVE OF FRENCH “GENOCIDE” VOTE
EuroNews – English Version
October 10, 2006
The Turkish Prime Minister has hit out at France, as a crisis looms
between the two countries. Recep Tayyip Erdogan urged the French
to look at their own colonial past in Africa, instead of attacking
Ankara. He was speaking on the eve of a controversial parliamentary
vote in Paris that would make it a crime to deny that the mass killing
of Armenians by Ottoman Turks was genocide.
Turkey, which hopes to join the European Union, maintains there was
no systematic genocide of Armenians during World War One. Recognition
of genocide allegations is not a condition of EU membership and the
President of the European Commission Jose Manuel Barroso has said
new criteria should not be imposed.
But tomorrow’s French vote has already provoked protests in Turkey.
And Europe’s enlargement commissioner has warned that approval of the
bill could do serious harm to EU-Turkey relations. The Turkish foreign
ministry has warned that economic and political ties with France could
be damaged if the bill is passed. Ankara strongly rejects claims that
1.5 million Armenians perished at the hands of Ottoman Turks between
1915 and 1921 in a genocide, saying large numbers of Armenians and
Turks died in partisan conflict raging at the time.

FRANCE-TURKEY ROW OVER ARMENIAN GENOCIDE
European Report
October 10, 2006
The National Assembly in Paris is scheduled to discuss on 11 October a
bill calling for five years in jail to anyone who denies the alleged
genocide of Armenians at the hands of the Ottoman Empire at the turn
of the 20th century. This controversial piece of legislation was
reintroduced after French President Jacques Chirac urged Turkey on
30 September in the capital of Armenia to recognise World War I-era
massacres of Armenians as genocide if it wants to join the European
Union. In response, the Turkish parliament’s Justice Commission will
debate this week proposals that foresee penalties for any denial of
the killings of Algerians under French colonial rule.
Turkish Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul said that ‘if the bill is
passed, French participation in major economic projects in Turkey,
including the planned construction of a nuclear plant for which the
tender process is expected to soon begin, will suffer’.