Armenian, Assyrian and Hellenic Genocide News

Turkey set to announce details of French sanctions
by Agence France Presse, January 20, 2001
Posted: Tuesday, January 23, 2001 00:36 am CST

ISTANBUL, Jan 20 -- Turkey's Prime Minister Bulent Ecevit said on Saturday that his government was moving towards implementing sanctions against France, with details to be announced in the coming days, the Anatolia news agency reported.

"We are preparing a plan which will not cause us too much harm," the Turkish leader told journalists in Ankara.

The move comes after the French parliament on Thursday recognised as "genocide" the massacres of Armenians in what was then the Ottoman Empire between 1915 and 1917.

Anti-French demonstrations took place across Turkey on Friday, with trade and industry bodies calling for a boycott of French goods.

A Turkish government spokesman announced on Thursday that a series of unspecified retaliatory measures would be adopted against France, saying that ties between Paris and Ankara would be deeply and lastingly affected.

Turkey's Foreign Minister Ismail Cem said that "such measures could be introduced with respect to public tenders and defence contracts" -- an apparent hint that French firms might be excluded from such lucrative projects.

The Ankara Chamber of Commerce showed blanket support for sanctions saying, "we would support any economic measure the government would introduce against France in retaliation to the bill".

France is among Turkey's main economic partners, with bilateral trade in 1999 standing at some 4.5 billion dollars (4.8 billion euros).

But political sanctions may prove just as damaging as any economic measures, and likely more so for Turkey.

Ankara and Paris had previously enjoyed warm ties and Turkey had been looking to France as one of its chief supporters in its bid to join the European Union.

But with Turkey on Thursday recalling its ambassador to France, it looks as if Ankara is set to lose a key supporter in the EU.

Turkey says the French bill was passed for political motives, aimed at wooing the country's half-million people of Armenian descent ahead of municipal elections in March.

Related Information...

Armenian, Assyrian and Hellenic Genocide News Archives