Turks Protesting in Paris

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Turks Protesting in Paris

French Senate is expected to cast a vote on the anti-denial bill, which punishes those who denied the genocide of Armenians at the end of the WWI, as the Ottoman Empire was in dissolution. The vote follows a similar one in the National Assembly, which in December passed the bill which stipulates that those who deny the genocide be given up to five years in prison and a 45,000 euros fine.
The passing of the bill and its subsequent signing into law is expected to anger Turkey, whose foreign minister Ahmed Davutoglu has announced that if the bill passed, his country would impose a new set of sanctions on France.
Turkey reacted angrily in December to the vote in the lower house by downgrading the political, economic and military ties with France. On that occasion, the Turkish PM urged France to revisit its own colonial past and to leave Turkey alone.
Over the weekend, Ahmet Davutoglu replied to a letter sent by the French president to the authorities in Ankara, in which Sarkozy was reaffirming the commitment of his country to continuing the good ties with Turkey, by expressing hope that the French senators would choose to embrace the European values and would not vote for the denial law.
On Monday, Davutoglu said that if every country in Europe was implementing their view on the history, then a new Middle Age Inquisition would come into being across Europe. He added that it was a shame that such an inquisition is born in France.
Thousands of Turks from Europe manifested in central Paris demanding that the Senate did not pass the bill. On Monday 200 Turks living in France protested in front of the Senate waving their voting cards and having banners with the inscription: “It is not up to politicians to invent history.”
Both Socialists, which have a majority in the Senate, and the president’s party, which put forward the law, said they would back the legislation.
If adopted the president must sign it into law before the parliament is suspended in February ahead of the presidential elections. It can still be invalidated by the constitutional court, if found unconstitutional.
France highlighted in the letter sent over the weekend to the authorities in Ankara that France considered Turkey an important ally, and that the law that is about to be passed does not single out one country or nation, and that Paris understands the sufferings the Turkish people endured over the last years of the Ottoman Empire.
French foreign ministry spokesman said that Turkey should not overreact about it, while the Turkish embassy said that France cannot call Turkey an ally, while voting laws against it.
Turkey could not impose sanctions on France, but the European country could lose many contracts with the EU hopeful country, and even tension its diplomatic relationship with Ankara at a time when Turkey emerges as a leader in the Middle East.
Armenia says that Ottomans have killed some 500,000 Armenians at the end of the WWI, in a plan to exterminate them. Turkish authorities since then argued that no plan was drafted by the Ottomans to kill Armenians.
They utter that many Turkish people were killed on that occasion, as the troops clashed with the Armenians. 20 countries around the world have already recognized the genocide against Armenians. Israeli Knesset education commission is discussing the matter of imposing a day of observance for the Armenian genocide, and though in a country like Israel, which is very sensitive to mass crimes the project should meet no opposition, the matter is very delicate considering that Israel and Turkey have downgraded their relations following the Mavi Marmara incident in May 2010.

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