Turkey to Recall Ambassador if France Bans 'Genocide' Denial
Turkey will recall its ambassador and freeze ties with Paris if French lawmakers approve a bill banning the denial of the "Armenian genocide" next week, he told Agence France Presse on Thursday.
"There will be irreparable consequences in all bilateral relations," Ambassador Engin Solakoglu said, adding that he expected to be called back to Ankara for an indefinite period from December 22.
That is when France's National Assembly is expected to pass a law banning the denial of the 1915 massacre, which Armenians regard as a deliberate genocide while Turks argue the deaths were a side-effect of war.
France, which has a large population of Armenian descent, has recognized the event as a genocide since 2001, but the new law, proposed by a member of President Nicolas Sarkozy's majority party, has strained ties with Ankara.
"Turkey considers this a hostile act by the French executive," Solakoglu told Agence France Presse. "All cooperation with the French government, all joint projects, will be frozen."
A Turkish delegation is due in Paris on Monday to lobby officials in a last minute bid to head of Thursday's vote.
Most historians agree that between 500,000 and 1.5 million Armenians died in a series of massacres and deportations from Asia Minor in the Turkish-led Ottoman Empire in 1915 and the succeeding years.
Modern day Armenia, now independent, and around 20 countries regard the killings as genocide, but Turkey insists there was no deliberate slaughter but that many died as a result of starvation and World War I violence.
Source: Agence France Presse
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