Armenian, Assyrian and Hellenic Genocide News

Armenian consumers to boycott Turkish goods, support French genocide vote
by Agence France Presse, January 23, 2001
Posted: Wednesday, January 24, 2001 07:10 am CST

YEREVAN, Jan 23 -- Armenia's union of consumers called on Armenians worldwide not to buy Turkish goods after Turkey's businessmen threatened to boycott French products, the union's chairman said Monday.

"We urge both Armenian citizens and members of the Armenian diaspora abroad to boycott all goods produced in Turkey," chairman Armen Pogosyan said.

Ankara's Union of Turkish Chambers and Commodities urged a boycott of French imports and bank services following the French parliament's vote last week declaring that the Ottoman Empire committed genocide against Armenians in the early 1900s.

Pogosyan said that Turkish goods make up 20-25 percent of Armenian market, adding that such a boycott would boost local production.

Ankara categorically rejects claims of genocide, saying that some 300,000 Armenians and thousands of Turks were killed in what was internal fighting in the dissolution years of the Ottoman Empire.

Armenians, however, maintain that 1.5 million people died in orchestrated massacres between 1915 and 1917.

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