FRANCE PASSES BILL PUNISHING DENIAL OF ARMENIAN GENOCIDE

[tightrope]

Over Turkish objections, French lawmakers pass bill punishing denial of genocide of Armenians
By Elaine Ganley,Suzan Fraser, The Associated Press | The Canadian Press – 38 minutes ago

PARIS - French lawmakers easily passed a measure Thursday to make it a crime to deny the mass killings of Armenians in 1915 by Ottoman Turks amounted to genocide. Turkey swiftly retaliated, ordering its ambassador home and halting official contacts, including some military co-operation.

Within hours of the lower house vote on the bill, which would penalize those who deny the Armenian genocide, Turkey meted out a severe punishment of its own.

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan announced a series of retaliatory measures, recalling the country's ambassador to France and suspending joint military manoeuvrs and restricting French military flights.

Turkey, a NATO member, is a strategic ally of France and valued trading partner, and the moves diminish ties at a particularly crucial time. Paris and Ankara are both deeply involved in international issues from the uprising in Syria to Afghanistan.

"We are recalling our ambassador in Paris to Ankara for consultations," Erdogan said.

"As of now, we are cancelling bilateral level political, economic and military activities," he said. "We are suspending all kinds of political consultations with France" and "bilateral military co-operation, joint manoeuvrs are cancelled as of now."

It was clear long before the vote — easily passed with a show of hands — that France was on a collision course with Turkey. Ankara had threatened to remove Ambassador Tahsin Burcuoglu if French lawmakers did not desist and warned of "grave consequences" to political and economic ties.

Turkey vehemently rejects the term "genocide" for the World War I era-mass killings of Armenians, saying the issue should be left to historians. It contends that France is trampling freedom of expression and that President Nicolas Sarkozy is on a vote-getting mission before April presidential elections.

An estimated 500,000 Armenians live in France and many have pressed to raise the legal statute regarding the massacres to the same level as the Holocaust by punishing denial of genocide.

"We must not mix freedom of opinion with propaganda," conservative lawmaker Patrick Devedjian, who is of Armenian origin, said before lawmakers in arguing for the measure.

"Would you accept today that Germany denies the Holocaust and that it spreads abroad, to France, a negationist propaganda? No," he said later before journalists. "So why should we accept that from Turkey."

France formally recognized the killings as genocide in 2001, but provided no penalty for anyone denying that. The bill sets a punishment of up to one year in prison and a fine of €45,000 ($59,000) for those who deny or "outrageously minimize" the killings by Ottoman Turks, putting such action on a par with denial of the Holocaust.

In Washington, President Barack Obama has stopped short of calling the killings genocide.

"Our ancestors can finally rest in peace," said 75-year-old Maurice Delighazarian, standing outside France's National Assembly. He said his grandparents on both sides were among the victims of the 1915 massacre.

Vaskel Avedissian, 25, said he spent time with Turkish demonstrators outside the National Assembly earlier Thursday and "These people have nothing against Armenians." But, he added, "Turkey is the spokesman for state negationism today."

Lawmakers denounced what they called Turkey's propaganda effort in a bid to sway them.

"Laws voted in this chamber cannot be dictated by Ankara," said Jean-Christophe Lagarde, a deputy from the New Center party, as Turks demonstrated outside the National Assembly ahead of the vote.

The bill's author said she was "shocked" at the attempt to interfere with the parliament's work.

"My bill doesn't aim at any particular country," Valerie Boyer, a deputy for Sarkozy's conservative UMP party, told lawmakers.

Speaking to journalists after the vote, Boyer said that Turkey's threats to retaliate are not in line with its desire to join the European Union.

"The attitude of this country (Turkey) which is knocking on the door of Europe and which starts by threatening France with retaliation ... seems to me absolutely paradoxical," said Boyer.

An initial bid to punish denial of the Armenian genocide failed earlier this year, killed by the Senate five years after it was passed by the lower house.

French authorities have stressed the importance of bilateral ties with Turkey and the key role it plays in sensitive strategic issues as a member of NATO, in Syria, Afghanistan and elsewhere.

However, Sarkozy has long opposed the entry into the European Union of mostly Muslim Turkey, putting a constant strain on the two nations' ties.

Turkish authorities have weighed in with caustic remarks about France's past. Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan has recalled France's colonial history in Algeria and a 1945 massacre there, as well as its role in Rwanda, where some have claimed a French role in the 1994 genocide.

"Those who do want to see genocide should turn around and look at their own dirty and bloody history," Erdogan said last weekend. "Turkey will stand against this intentional, malicious, unjust and illegal attempt through all kinds of diplomatic means."

Turkish President Abdullah Gul spoke out on the issue this week, saying it will "put France in a position of a country that does not respect freedom of expression and does not allow objective scientific research."

Turkey insists the mass killings of Armenians — up to 1.5 million, historians estimate — occurred during civil unrest as the Ottoman Empire collapsed, with losses on both sides. Historians contend the Armenians were massacred in the first genocide of the 20th century.

France is pressing Turkey to own up to its history for the sake of "memory" just as the French have officially recognized the role of their state — the collaborationist Vichy government — in the deportation of Jews to Nazi death camps during World War II.

In October, Sarkozy visited Armenia and its capital of Yerevan, urging Turkey to recognize the 1915 killings as genocide.

"Turkey, which is a great country, would honour itself by revisiting its history like other countries in the world have done," Sarkozy said.

France, however, took its own time recognizing the state's role in the Holocaust. It was not until 1995 that then-President Jacques Chirac proclaimed France's active role in sending its citizens to death camps. And it was only in 2009 that his historic declaration was formally recognized in a ruling by France's top body, the Council of State.

Richard Maillie, a UMP lawmaker, said in arguing for passage of the bill that France's recognition in 2001 of the Armenian killings as genocide "is not sufficient."

"It would be better (for Turkey) to simply recognize this genocide and ask for pardon," Maillie said, as France did for the Holocaust.

___

Suzan Fraser reported from Ankara, Turkey. Catherine Gaschka contributed to this article.

[arabmtu]

It's time Muslims should boycott French products.

[LiquidHYDROGEN]

Gaaladu always seem to have convenient amnesia. What about the missiles killing somalis in their homes. What about the amxaras anad bantus using somalis for target practise? What about the genocide that's been going on for 11 years in Iraq and afghanistan? What about the genocide happening in palestine?

[arabmtu]

Gaaladu always seem to have convenient amnesia. What about the missiles killing somalis in their homes. What about the amxaras anad bantus using somalis for target practise? What about the genocide that's been going on for 11 years in Iraq and afghanistan? What about the genocide happening in palestine?

Good questions.

[udun]

Turkish government deserves whatever Europeans do to them. They have been part of the massacre in Libya; they are currently destabilizing Syria; their territories will be used for an attack against Iran; they have failed to lift their fingers against the massacre against Bosnian Muslims, hell even Iran did better than them in the Bosnian tragedy in the 1990s; and they are also part of the Afghanistan operation. So, they deserve this. Not only them but every Muslim who willingly contribute to the sufferings of other Muslims should also suffer (Amen).

[grandpakhalif]

Turkish government deserves whatever Europeans do to them. They have been part of the massacre in Libya; they are currently destabilizing Syria; their territories will be used for an attack against Iran; they have failed to lift their fingers against the massacre against Bosnian Muslims, hell even Iran did better than them in the Bosnian tragedy in the 1990s; and they are also part of the Afghanistan operation. So, they deserve this. Not only them but every Muslim who willingly contribute to the sufferings of other Muslims should also suffer (Amen).

Let's not forget their hero, the Jew Attaturk who introduced nationalism and solely broke up the Islamic Calipha. They definitely deserve whatever comes to them, that's why I never praise their so called 'humanitarian efforts' in Somalia.

[arabmtu]

Turkish government deserves whatever Europeans do to them. They have been part of the massacre in Libya; they are currently destabilizing Syria; their territories will be used for an attack against Iran; they have failed to lift their fingers against the massacre against Bosnian Muslims, hell even Iran did better than them in the Bosnian tragedy in the 1990s; and they are also part of the Afghanistan operation. So, they deserve this. Not only them but every Muslim who willingly contribute to the sufferings of other Muslims should also suffer (Amen).

What about Turkey supporting the TFG instead of al-Shabaab?

[kadarre]

So the Turks of today should pay for what happened a hundred years ago?? I would ignore it if i was a Turk. What about the killing of Turkish civilians by Greeks in Anatolia.

nonetheles

1914… World War 1 starts…
Ottoman-Russian battles continue in Eastern Turkey…
Dashank Party creates so-called “Dashnak Government” in the Eastern Turkey that coordinates guerilla warfare against Ottoman military behind the battle field of Ottoman-Russian war.
April 24, 1915… Ottoman officials arrest propagandist and separatist Armenian leaders (those who have committed massacres)...
Dashnak (Armenian Revolutionary Federation) guerrillas and Hunchak (Social Democrat Hunchakian Party) massacred thousands of Muslims in order to create their “Greater Armenia” territory in the region.
Ottoman Government gives the order of “Relocation” (Tehcir) which means to relocate some part of Armenian population from the war zone until the war ended. (Relocation order did not cover the entire Armenian population; Only suspected rebelling villages in Eastern Anatolia, some villages remained.)
Ottoman government also takes necessary measurements in order to protect the properties of Armenians, supply them with food and water and protect the Armenians during the relocation. Including buying housing for them in their arrival area, Syria. Contrary to popular Armenian belief, there was no desert in the path of the relocation.
1918… Ottoman government calls the Armenians back. Many do, this is why there is a large population of Armenians in Eastern Anatolia.

seems like the christians wanna play chess.

[udun]

Turkish government deserves whatever Europeans do to them. They have been part of the massacre in Libya; they are currently destabilizing Syria; their territories will be used for an attack against Iran; they have failed to lift their fingers against the massacre against Bosnian Muslims, hell even Iran did better than them in the Bosnian tragedy in the 1990s; and they are also part of the Afghanistan operation. So, they deserve this. Not only them but every Muslim who willingly contribute to the sufferings of other Muslims should also suffer (Amen).

What about Turkey supporting the TFG instead of al-Shabaab?

Man, you sound like you're pursuing an interview in SNET Got busted It ws good that they helped Somalis who were suffering during the drought, but their good will should be consistent and applicable to other Muslims. Take for example, the city of Sirte: It was one of the beautiful and peaceful city in all of Africa. Well, today it is levelled and its imhabitants massacred and fled. Trurkey had a hand in that tragedy and its air force were part of the killings that have been conducted against the Libyan people. Turkish and Qatari hypocrisies were obvious in that tragedy.

Now, Zarkosy who was the lead in the Libyan massacre is also recognizing the Armenian tragedy at the nose of Turkey. What sheep-in-the-cloth Ordogan did? To complain only. This asshole is busy in destabilizing Syria while he is only complaining to his boss Zarkosy about this recognition of the fake Armenian genocide. He is nothing but a sheep-in-the-cloth. Don't let him decieve you, he is part of 'them.'

[Grant]

Maillie has a point. The Turks need to recognize an established fact, apologize for it, and everybody needs to move on. As others have pointed out, the Armenian genocide was only the first of the Twentieth Century........

http://www.unitedhumanrights.org/Genoci ... nocide.htm

[ToughGong]

It's time Muslims should boycott French products.

Call a spade a spade I say.Those attrocities commited by the Young Turks.Which was a Secular organisation and had nothing to do with Islam was genocide

[Niya]

[quote="seemeyer Call a spade a spade I say.Those attrocities commited by the Young Turks.Which was a Secular organisation and had nothing to do with Islam was genocide[/quote]

The problem is that the Western countries don't call a spade a spade. There is a selective criteria for designating when an attrocities took place.

[ToughGong]

[quote="seemeyer Call a spade a spade I say.Those attrocities commited by the Young Turks.Which was a Secular organisation and had nothing to do with Islam was genocide

The problem is that the Western countries don't call a spade a spade. There is a selective criteria for designating when an attrocities took place.[/quote]

True

[Grant]

here's a list of major Twentieth Century genocides. Note that Nixon and Johnson are both included. I don't know why Truman wasn't. The numbers are interesting.

http://www.scaruffi.com/politics/dictat.html

Niya,

Two wrongs don't make a right.

[arabmtu]

Man, you sound like you're pursuing an interview in SNET Got busted '

OK, I won't ask any such uncomfortable question. I understand freedom of speech doesn't apply to giving an objective/fair opinion about al-Shabaab. Only few (like Paidmonk) are capable of giving such an opinion.

Those attrocities commited by the Young Turks.Which was a Secular organisation and had nothing to do with Islam was genocide

Ataturk was one of those young Turks, but the West would never condemn him or his legacy.