Armenian, Assyrian and Hellenic Genocide News

Turkey ponders sanctions against France
by The Times of India, Jan 21 2001
Posted: Tuesday, January 23, 2001 00:39 am CST

ANKARA: Turkey is weighing sanctions against France in response to French lawmakers' characterization of the Ottoman Empire killing of Armenians as "genocide," Prime Minister Bulent Ecevit said on Saturday.

Ecevit stressed, however, that Turkey would impose no sanctions that might also harm its own economic interests. "We will of course prepare a plan that won't hurt us," he told reporters.

The lower house of France's National Assembly unanimously approved a declaration Thursday stating that "France publicly recognizes the Armenian genocide of 1915."

The decision outraged Turkey, which immediately recalled its ambassador to France.

Armenians say 1.5 million of their people died in an Ottoman Empire campaign to force them from eastern Turkey between 1915 and 1923. Turkey says that death count is inflated, and that Armenians were killed or displaced as the Ottoman Empire tried to quell civil unrest. Modern-day Turkey was founded in 1923.

In the wake of French lawmakers' declaration, Turkish trade groups called for a boycott of all French goods. Turks protested outside French diplomatic missions in Ankara and Istanbul.

On Saturday, Turkish civil servants in Istanbul publicly burned a French flag, and 50 protesters gathered outside the French consulate to read out a demand for tough sanctions.

"We will, of course, prepare a plan that won't hurt us," Ecevit said. "The results of our study on what kind of sanctions Turkey can impose on France, without causing itself any economic harm, will emerge in a few days."

Newspaper reports said Turkey was considering excluding French companies from bidding for state contracts, including millions of dollars in defense work.

On Friday, the powerful industrialist association TUSIAD warned that an economic boycott would harm both Turkey and France.

The U.S. House of Representatives held off a similar resolution that would have termed the Armenian killings a "genocide" last year, after President Bill Clinton warned it could seriously damage relations with Turkey.

Related Information...

Armenian, Assyrian and Hellenic Genocide News Archives