There is growing anger in Turkey at a bill to be debated by the French Parliament on Thursday which will make denial of the mass killing of Armenians under the Turkish Ottoman empire a criminal offense. Turkish government officials have warned about the political and economic repercussions if the bill passes and becomes law. Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan at a meeting of his party on the weekend asked sarcastically whether French officials would put him in jail if he were to cast doubt on the Armenian genocide during a visit to France.
Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul has warned that if the bill is passed, it could jeopardise French participation in major economic projects, including the planned construction of a nuclear plant in Turkey.
Both Gul and Turkish president Ahmet Necdet Sezer sent letters to their counterparts, respectively Philippe Douste-Blazy and Jacques Chirac, stressing the possible negative consequences of passing the bill.
Turkey's powerful military establishment has also joined the growing chorus of protests against France. The country' top military commander, the Chief of General Staff Gen. Yasar Buyukanit said Turkey would cut military ties with France if the bill was adopted.
Also ahead of the French Parliament's debate on the bill, the Turkish Parliament are set to discuss a bill on Wednesday that would foresee penalties for any denial of the killings of Algerians under French colonial rule.
Business chambers and consumer associations have also called for a boycott of French products.
Zafer Caglayan, the chairman of Ankara Chamber of Industry declared that he would say “there is no Armenian genocide” on his scheduled speech to the Paris Chamber of Commerce and Industry on 12 October. "I will be the first to be penalised on that bill," said Caglayan who also proposed visas for French nationals visiting Turkey.
But Turkey has not been alone in raising objections to the French bill.
The EU's Enlargement Commisioner Olli Rehn said in Brussels that while France asks for more freedom of expression in Turkey, the French parliament itself will debate a bill that will limit freedom of expression in France.
According to some estimates over a million Armenians died during 1915- 1917 through forced removals and planned massacres by the Turkish authorities.
The Turkish government and several international historians reject the label "genocide," and claim that the deaths among the Armenians were not a result of a state-sponsored plan of mass extermination, but of inter-ethnic strife, disease and famine during the turmoil of World War I.
In Turkey it is a criminal offence to label the killing as a genocide.
France is Turkey’s fifth biggest partner in exports and imports. Turkey’s exports to France last year totalled 3.7 billion dollars while iimports reached 5.8 billion dollars. Major French companies including Renault, Axa, Danone and BNP Paribas and Carrefour have great amounts of investments in Turkey.
(Vah/Aki)
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