France Wants Turkey To Acknowledge Armenia Genocid

[ECKIAN]

France wants Turkey to acknowledge Armenia genocide

AFP: 12/13/2004

 

BRUSSELS, Dec 13 (AFP) - France wants Turkey to acknowledge the World War I massacre of Armenians during negotiations on its membership of the European Union, Foreign Minister Michel Barnier said Monday.

 

"It is a request that France will make, to recognize the tragedy from the start of the century .... Turkey must carry out this task as a memorial," he told reporters after talks with his EU counterparts in Brussels.

 

France's Armenian community has vowed to press President Jacques Chirac to prevent negotiations on Turkish membership of the European Union until Turkey acknowledged responsibility for the massacre.

 

EU leaders are expected to give Turkey a conditional green light at a summit this week to start membership talks with the bloc, while setting a series of strict conditions and warning the whole process could take at least a decade.

 

The Armenian massacre has been a bone of contention for nearly nine decades, with Turkey consistently refusing to acknowledge that genocide in 1915-1917, when up to 1.5 million Armenians died.

 

Turkey says that between 250,000 and 500,000 Armenians and thousands of Turks were killed in civil strife during World War I, when the Armenians rose up against their Ottoman rulers.

 

The French parliament passed legislation in 2001 stating that genocide had occurred, thereby causing hard feelings in relations with Turkey.

 

 

12/13/2004 16:25 GMT - AFP

[Dave]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/4092933.stm

 

Turkey 'must admit WWI genocide'

 

France has said Turkey must improve its human rights record

France has said it will ask Turkey to acknowledge the mass killing of Armenians from 1915 as genocide when it begins EU accession talks.

French Foreign Minister Michel Barnier said Turkey had "a duty to remember".

 

Armenians say 1.5 million of their people died or were deported from their homelands under Turkish Ottoman rule.

 

France is among a group of nations that class the killings as genocide. Turkey denies any organised genocide, claiming they were quelling a civil uprising.

 

Mr Barnier said France did not consider Turkish acknowledgement a condition of EU entry, but insisted his country would raise the issue once talks opened.

 

Speaking to reporters after a meeting of EU foreign ministers to discuss plans to invite Turkey for accession talks, Mr Barnier said Turkey "must carry out this task as a memorial".

 

In addition, France believes that accession talks should not begin before the second half of 2005, Mr Barnier said. Turkey has pushed for immediate negotiations.

 

"I believe that when the time comes, Turkey should come to terms with its past, be reconciled with its own history and recognise this tragedy," Mr Barnier said.

 

'So-called genocide'

 

His comments drew no immediate official response from Turkey, which has consistently denied orchestrating genocide and the Armenian figures.

 

A foreign ministry spokesman in the Turkish capital, Ankara, told Reuters that Turkey has never and will never recognise "any so-called genocide".

 

Armenia alleges that the Young Turks, in 1915 the dominant party in the Ottoman Empire, systematically arranged the deportation and killing of 1.5 million Armenians.

 

Turkish relations with independent Armenia, which borders Turkey to the north, have long been coloured by the issue.

 

Around 300,000 Armenians live in France, more than in any other European country, and community leaders have pledged to pressure French President Jacques Chirac on the genocide issue during Turkish accession negotiations.

 

France passed a law officially recognising the Armenian genocide in 2001, cooling relations with Turkey and scuppering a major arms deal.

 

Another 14 nations, including Switzerland, Russia and Argentina, also classify the killings as genocide.

 

 

 

All I can say is:

Good work French-Armenians!

and

In your faces Turks of Valence

Edited December 13, 2004 by Dave

[gamavor]

Turkey will not apologise for Armenian genocide

 

By Anthony Browne, Brussels Correspondent

December 15, 2004

 

TURKEY has reacted angrily to a demand by France that it accept responsibility for a “genocide” against Armenians nearly 80 years ago, which is thought to have influenced the Nazi Holocaust.

Michel Barnier, the French Foreign Minister insisted that Turkey must officially recognise the 1915 genocide before it joins the European Union.

 

Historians believe that Turkish authorities orchestrated the killing of 1.5 million Armenian Christians, who were indigenous inhabitants of Turkey, in a brutal attempt to make an ethnically pure nation. However, the Turkish Government has always said that only a small number were killed in spontaneous acts of violence.

 

M Barnier said: “In the course of the accession negotiations, France will ask for a recognition of the tragedy at the outset of the 20th century. When the time comes, Turkey should face up to the requirement of remembrance. The European project itself is founded on reconciliation.”

 

He said that recognition should not be a precondition for membership talks with Turkey, a step to be decided by EU leaders on Thursday. However, he insisted that Turkey recognise the genocide during the membership talks, which are expected to last ten years: “We have ten years to ask it. the Turks have ten years to think about their response.”

 

He later referred to it as a genocide, the first time the French Government has used that word, having previously preferred tragedy. Many parliaments in Europe have called on Turkey to recognise the slaughter, which is marked by monuments in many European cities.

 

However, a Turkish government spokesman said: “There was no such genocide, so there is no question of recognising a genocide that did not happen.”

 

One Turkish official said: “They are just trying to make us angry. It is their last chance to cause trouble against us.”

 

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,3-1403664,00.html

 

 

 

PS: It looks like poorly played game on the part of the Europeans on our expense. After few decades Europe will be changed forever with or without Turkey. Even now there are 15 million Turks in Europe and 30 million Arab Moslems. After few decades their number will quadruple.

[DominO123]

One Turkish official said: “They are just trying to make us angry. It is their last chance to cause trouble against us.”

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As I said, the recognition should not be a condition... but such retarded talk from a Turkish official, that has no place in an adult discussion SHOULD BE an exclusion.

 

Those kind of speechs you hear only from backward countries.

[ED]

PS: It looks like poorly played game on the part of the Europeans on our expense. After few decades Europe will be changed forever with or without Turkey. Even now there are 15 million Turks in Europe and 30 million Arab Moslems. After few decades their number will quadruple.

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good observation, aldough I'm reluctent to speak against France (resent recogition of the AG) most resent developments about Turkey-EU conditioning has lot to do if not all with EU member national interests rather then justice for Armenians, has anybody walked in streets of Munich, Berlin, Paris etc..... would understand

[Dave]

I guess the Europeans beleive that Turkey will never recognize it, so if they effectively make it a condition for EU accession, Turkey won't enter the EU.

[ED]

I for one like to see Turkey in EU, if Turkey evantualy became EU member regardless of AG, and if it becomes a EU member for the reason of recognizing AG, either way its a win win situation in a long run for Armenians and Armenia.

[gamavor]

I for one like to see Turkey in EU, if Turkey evantualy became EU member regardless of AG, and if it becomes a EU member for the reason of recognizing AG, either way its a win win situation in a long run for Armenians and Armenia.

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I don't know what is good and what is bad for Armenia in this case, but I know that double standards imposed by USA and Europe on Turkey with regard to human rights and rule of law are bad sign. I'm afraid that the inclusion of Turkey into EU would not lead to enlargement of the Union, but rather enlargement of Turkey and additional turkification in the Balkans. Europe should NOT compromise a bit about Copenhagen criteria even if the candidate countries are economically suitable for the EU. Such compromises would lead to dangerous precedents in the future which might undermine the integration processes elsewhere and create tensions within the Union.

 

Too much is at stake and as I said with our without Turkey, Europe will be changed forever very soon due to the cheep labor imported over past few decades.

 

If you are Turk or communist it is for life.