France Urges Turkey Not to 'Overreact' to Genocide Law
إقرأ هذا الخبر بالعربية
France expressed regret Thursday that Turkey had withdrawn its ambassador to Paris, and called on its NATO ally not to overreact to a law to punish the denial of the Armenian genocide.
"First of all, I hope that our Turkish friends do not overreact to this decision by the French National Assembly," Foreign Minister Alain Juppe told reporters in Bordeaux, the southwestern city where he is mayor.
"I note the recall of their ambassador. I regret this first reaction and I call for restraint and common sense," he said, adding that he hoped that would be the end of the matter.
But just before he spoke in Bordeaux, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan had announced much more draconian sanctions from Ankara, suspending political visits between the countries and freezing military ties.
According to reports in the French media, Juppe himself was opposed to the law and had clashed with President Nicolas Sarkozy over it last week, but he refused to be drawn on this, saying: "My views are well known."
Juppe said the question of withdrawing the French ambassador from Ankara had not yet arisen, since the envoy in question is already in France on a Christmas break. For now there are no plans to prolong this absence, he said.
22 December 2011, 23:41
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Dear bigwig, Turkey, indeed, does have a law that bans affirmation of the Armenian Genocide. Article 301 of Turkish criminal code. Two years ago, when writer Orhan Pamuk talked about killings of Armenians and Kurds, he was prosecuted under this code. He had to flee his own country...
23 December 2011, 02:44
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except in france it would be a rule of justice and truth and in turkey it would be a rule of continuation of denial and genocide. Early 1900s record 1.3 million chrisitians in the istanbul area, where are they? what happened to ataturks massacres of intellects in lebanon? this genocide on which, and unfortunately, 'moderate' turkey is built upon is a disgrace of humanity.
23 December 2011, 07:57
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What a idiotic similarity from "bigdig". Somebody needs to throw you down a real Big Dig.
23 December 2011, 09:22
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The condemenation of genocides movement in the western world is an act of pure hypocrisy. I have never heard of similar French laws on African slavery, Native American people genocide, the Spanish Inquisitions related slaughters of Spanish Muslim and Jews, French Algerian colonial period atrocities and similar. It is time for the Western world to be consitent or to leave these matters to history and allow concerned peoples such as the Turkish and Armenian peoples to reconcile without external involvement.
