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Turkish ambassador to return to Paris after Armenian genocide row
Turkey announced Thursday that it was sending its ambassador back to Paris five months after recalling the diplomat in anger over French legislation recognizing the killing of Armenians under the Ottoman Empire as genocide.
"It has been found appropriate for Ambassador Sonmez Koksal to return to his post," the foreign ministry said in a brief statement, without giving a date for the diplomat's return.
Koksal was summoned to Ankara on January 18, shortly after the French National Assembly unanimously passed the controversial bill.
A French diplomatic source hailed the ambassador's return as "a big step towards normalization" and a sign of "significant detente".
A foreign analyst added: "It is difficult for Turkey to maintain frozen ties with France" at a time when Ankara needs emergency foreign aid to overcome one of the worst economic crises in its history.
After the bill was promulgated by French President Jacques Chirac in late January, Turkey took a series of steps against France, cancelling some contracts awarded to French firms, excluding others from tenders, notably in the arms sector, and suspending some military and small business cooperation.
Prime Minister Bulent Ecevit was also reported to have ordered ministries to minimize ties with Paris and avoid non-essential visits to France.
Senior members of Turkey's parliament, meanwhile, drafted a bill recognising and condemning a range of massacres allegedly carried out by France in Algeria and Indochina, as well as its complicity in the Rwanda genocide of 1994.
The bill is still being discussed in parliamentary commissions.
Turkey's sports authorities have decided to boycott eight sports events in France and not invite French athletes to events in Turkey when it is not compulsory.
Turkish federations have also decided to boycott French-made sports equipment.
Turkey categorically rejects claims of genocide, saying that around 300,000 Armenians and thousands of Turks were killed in internal fighting in the final years of the Ottoman Empire.
Armenians, however, maintain that 1.5 million people died in
orchestrated massacres that amounted to genocide.
Armenian, Assyrian and Hellenic Genocide News Archives