Armenian, Assyrian and Hellenic Genocide News

Turkish fury over genocide claims
by Simon Tisdall, The Age (Australia) - Jan 26 2001
Posted: Monday, January 29, 2001 01:50 am CST

LONDON - Friday 26 January 2001 - Turkey has stepped up economic and diplomatic reprisals against France as a wave of fury sweeps the country at the French national assembly's formal decision to recognise the killing of Armenians in eastern Turkey in 1915 as genocide.

Following street protests in Istanbul and Ankara, right-wing members of the coalition government warned that Turkey would consider imposing sanctions on any country that accused it of a deliberate policy of genocide.

Health Minister Osman Durmus said medical imports from France would be banned unless the French began to "think more healthily".

Turkey scrapped a $US259 million ($A477.2 million) spy satellite deal with the French firm Alacatel earlier this week and barred French companies from tendering for a $US7 billion defence contract. It also recalled its ambassador from Paris.

Several Turkish universities have threatened to close their French-language departments. The Turkish Parliament will be asked to vote on a declaration accusing France of genocide during Algeria's 1955-62 independence war.

Prime Minister Bulent Ecevit has said officials were examining other measures. "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," he said.

Last week, the French lower house of parliament unanimously adopted a declaration "recognising the Armenian genocide of 1915". The declaration, the result of prolonged lobbying by France's large Armenian community, did not mention Turkey by name, lacked any practical effect, and was opposed by the French Prime Minister and President. An official statement issued in the Armenian capital, Yerevan, welcomed the French declaration, saying that it "strengthens historical justice".

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