Armenian, Assyrian and Hellenic Genocide News

Turkey Recalls Ambassador From France
by AFP
Posted: Saturday, January 20, 2001 04:04 am CST

ANKARA, Jan 18 (AFP) - Turkey recalled its ambassador to France for consultations on Thursday after the French National Assembly approved a bill recognizing the killings of Armenians under the Ottoman Empire as genocide.

"Turkey's ambassador to France, Sonmez Koksal, has been recalled to Ankara for consulatations," said a government statement.

French genocide bill is serious blow to ties

Turkey on Thursday warned France of a "serious and lasting" blow to bilateral ties after the adoption of a bill in the French National Assembly recognizing the killing of Armenians under the Ottoman Empire as genocide.

"The bill, which has greatly disappointed our nation, will cause serious and lasting harm to Turco-French relations and could lead to a serious crisis in our ties," said the statement.

Turkish trade chamber calls for boycott of French goods

The head of the Ankara trade chamber called Thursday for a boycott of French goods to retaliate against the French parliament's adoption of a bill recognizing as genocide the killing of Armenians under the Ottoman Empire.

"Turkey should show a very serious reaction. the most efficient measure will be an embargo on French goods," Sinan Aygun said in a statement carried by Anatolia news agency.

"The (French) parliament, which is entitled to pass laws, has judged history and used a friendly country such as Turkey as election material," he added.

Turks believe the resolution is a politically motivated move to please France's influential Armenian diaspora ahead of municipal elections in March and presidential and parliamentary polls next year.

Other business people sounded more cautious but agreed that the genocide bill will damage bilateral economic ties.

"We should not expect an improvement of economic ties with a country which is doing so much injustice to Turkey," said Meral Eris, the head of the Economic Development Foundation, which promotes relations between Turkey and the European Union.

She added that Turkish business people would re-evaluate ties with French partners, Anatolia reported.

The Turkish co-chairman of the Turco-French business council, Aldo Kaslowski, for his part, denounced suggestions for immediate moves of retaliation in the economic field.

"We should not act hastily. It is easy to spoil relations, but rebuilding them is difficult," he was quoted as saying by Anatolia.

The Turkish government warned France of a "serious and lasting" blow to bilateral ties and recalled its ambassador following passage of the bill.

Asked whether Ankara would activate further sanctions against France, government spokesman Kazim Rustu Yucelen said the issue would be discussed when the ambassador returns.

France is among Turkey's main economic partners with bilateral trade standing at more than four billion dollars in 1999.

Turkey threatened to exclude French companies from lucrative defense tenders in 1998 when the issue of the recognition of the Armenian genocide was first brought to the agenda of the French parliament.

Yerevan maintains that 1.5 million Armenians died in massacres and mass deportations between 1915 and 1917, while Turkey says some 300,000 Armenians and thousands of Turks were killed in what was internal fighting in the dissolution years of the Ottoman Empire.

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