{"id":150063,"date":"2011-12-21T13:36:23","date_gmt":"2011-12-21T09:36:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.epress.am\/?p=150063"},"modified":"2011-12-21T13:40:10","modified_gmt":"2011-12-21T09:40:10","slug":"frances-armenian-genocide-bill-could-ruin-turkish-french-relations-protest-march-set-for-thursday","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/epress.am\/en\/2011\/12\/21\/frances-armenian-genocide-bill-could-ruin-turkish-french-relations-protest-march-set-for-thursday.html","title":{"rendered":"France’s Armenian Genocide Bill could Ruin Turkish-French Relations. Protest March Set for Thursday"},"content":{"rendered":"

A full-fledged Turkish campaign to convince French officials to prevent a bill that makes denial of the Armenian Genocide a crime punishable under French law has turned sour as the French legislature has put the bill on the agenda, allowing a vote on Thursday to decide on the fate of both the denial bill and Turkish-French relations, Today’s Zaman<\/strong><\/span><\/a><\/span> reports.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo say the least, it is insensitive to distort history for political motives, to make judgments about the history of a country through parliament, a political institution,\u201d Turkish President Abdullah G\u00fcl said in a written statement on Tuesday. G\u00fcl urged France to \u201cretract the initiative as soon as possible.\u201d G\u00fcl criticized the bill as \u201cunfair and groundless,\u201d as he repeated Ankara\u2019s claims that the French move was a political tool for votes ahead of elections. \u201cI hope that France will not sacrifice the centuries-old Turkish-French friendship, mutual benefits and ties of alliance for petty political calculations,\u201d G\u00fcl added.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe bill is as big a catastrophe as the Mavi Marmara raid that crumbled Turkish-Israeli relations,\u201d diplomatic sources told Today\u2019s Zaman, as they raised doubts regarding the future of diplomatic ties between Turkey and France. The analogy hinted that Turkey is now poising to withdraw Tahsin Burcuo\u011flu, ambassador to France, as it withdrew its ambassador in Tel Aviv following an Israeli raid targeting the Gaza-bound Mavi Marmara ship, aboard which nine peace activists were killed.<\/p>\n

While Burcuo\u011flu readies to leave for Turkey for \u201cconsultations with Ankara on an indefinite period,\u201d sources note that the bill, once passed on to the senate for ratification after Thursday\u2019s vote, could seriously damage diplomacy between Ankara and Paris, and lead to a reduction in diplomatic contact at the level of deputy ambassadors, if it receives senate approval in the wake of French presidential elections.<\/p>\n

Ankara officially regards the genocide denial bill a political tool utilized by France for its election benefits, therefore alarming various political, business and civil society delegations from the country to set out for Paris with hopes to avert a likely political crisis from erupting between the countries after the bill\u2019s passage.<\/p>\n

Leading the government\u2019s delegation to Paris, Volkan Bozk\u0131r, head of the Turkish Parliament\u2019s Foreign Affairs Commission, expressed Turkey\u2019s frustration with the bill, allegedly triggered by strictly political motives. \u201cWe are hoping that the Senate will stop the bill with a vote on Feb. 22,\u201d Bozk\u0131r told reporters from Paris, before he met with French foreign minister, Alain Juppe, and French President Nicolas Sarkozy\u2019s political advisor, Jean Levitte, on Tuesday.<\/p>\n

In response to French lawmakers\u2019 claims that Turkey would not act on its pledges and strike economic and diplomatic ties with the country, much like in 2001 when France recognized the Armenian Genocide, Bozk\u0131r stated that the Justice and Development Party (AK Party) was not in power back in 2001, signaling that the current government was serious in its pledge for retaliation and a \u201cheavy toll\u201d on France.<\/p>\n

Following the French proposal to make it punishable in France to deny the genocide, both the Turkish foreign ministry and prominent business circles that are engaged in contact with French businesses operating in or with Turkey warned them of the unpleasant consequences of the bill\u2019s passage. Increasing the tone of warning to French companies, Turkish Tradesmen\u2019s and Artisans\u2019 Confederation (TESK) Chairperson Bendevi Paland\u00f6ken warned on Tuesday that the bill, if it passes in the Senate, would \u201cbackfire on France,\u201d as he pledged that French products would be \u201cremoved from the shelves\u201d in Turkey, Anka news agency reported.<\/p>\n

Estimating the trade volume between Turkey and France at 13.5 billion euros, Bozk\u0131r warned that the bill jeopardizes French investments in Turkey, amounting to 6.5 billion euros, and risking the profits of nearly 2,000 French companies conducting business with Turkey, the Anatolia news agency reported Tuesday.<\/p>\n

In a reaction to the bill, roughly around 100 Turkish civil society organizations (CSO) operating in Paris gathered on Sunday at the Turkish mission in the city and started a committee to organize a walk of protest on Thursday. The CSOs are planning to gather in front of the French Parliament on Thursday morning to protest the denial bill and thousands of Turks from various cities in France are expected to join in the demonstration.<\/p>\n

Addressing representatives of participating CSOs, Ambassador Burcuo\u011flu describes the bill \u201ca stain\u201d on Turkish society, targeting the Turkish community living in France. \u201cWe are worried that Turks in France might suffer from serious legal problems,\u201d Burcuo\u011flu said, with foresight that the bill\u2019s passage would allow for the punishment of Turks if they refuse to call the Ottoman era killings of Armenians a genocide.<\/p>\n

Photo of French Parliament: <\/em>daylife<\/em><\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Following the French proposal to make it punishable in France to deny the genocide, both the Turkish foreign ministry and…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":150068,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tstyn_error":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[10372,24861,10790,16861,33312,10222,36114],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/epress.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/150063"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/epress.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/epress.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/epress.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/epress.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=150063"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/epress.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/150063\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/epress.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/150068"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/epress.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=150063"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/epress.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=150063"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/epress.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=150063"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}