Armenian, Assyrian and Hellenic Genocide News

Turkish deputies warn France of reprisals over Armenia genocide bill
by Agence France Presse, January 9, 2001
Posted: Monday, January 15, 2001 02:12 am CST

PARIS, Jan 9 -- A group of Turkish parliamentarians warned of reprisals against France Tuesday if the National Assembly in Paris approved a bill officially recognising the massacre of Armenians by the Ottoman empire as "genocide."

The bill was adopted by the French upper house, the Senate, in November in the teeth of opposition from the government which feared it would damage France's relations with Turkey.

The bill goes before the lower house on January 18.

"The French government is totally in control," said Bulent Arkacali of the Motherland Party on behalf the five-man delegation lobbying French deputies ahead of the vote.

"If the French government does nothing to prevent this decision, the Turkish parliament will ask the government to take reprisal measures," he said.

Armenians say that 1.5 million people died in massacres and mass deportations between 1915 and 1917, while Turkey claims a much smaller figure were killed in what it says was a revolt against the authorities.

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