By SELCAN HACAOGLU, Associated Press
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20061010/ap_on_re_mi_ea/turkey_france_armenians
ANKARA, Turkey – Turkey called Monday on the European Union to oppose French legislation that would outlaw denials that World War I-era killings of Armenians amounted to genocide.
Lawmakers in France, which has some 400,000 citizens of Armenian origin, have introduced a bill to penalize Armenian genocide denial with fines and jail terms. Turkey, which says the deaths came during a period of civil unrest and don’t constitute genocide, asked the European bloc it seeks to join to weigh in on its side.
“We expect the European Union to express its opposition against such a development that restricts freedom of _expression in France, because it contradicts key values of the EU,” said Justice Minister Cemil Cicek, who also serves as the government’s spokesman.
Armenians claim that as many as 1.5 million of their ancestors were killed between 1915-1923 in an organized campaign to force them out of eastern Turkey and have pushed for recognition of the killings around the world as genocide.
Turkey acknowledges that large numbers of Armenians died, but says the overall figure is inflated and that the deaths occurred in the civil unrest during the collapse of the Ottoman Empire.
Turkey Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has sought the help of French companies doing business in Turkey to prevent the approval of the bill and tensions between Turkey and France have been rising before Thursday’s debate by French lawmakers in the lower house.
Under the bill, people who contest that there was an Armenian genocide would risk up to a year in prison and fines of up to $57,000.
In May, French lawmakers had caved in to pressure from Turkey and put off the sensitive debate on the issue in the lower house.
At the time, Turkish legislators also froze a retaliatory bill which said anyone who denied that the French committed genocide in Algeria, a former French colony, could be put in jail and fined. Turkish lawmakers are now scheduled to re-debate that bill Wednesday.
Meanwhile, a Turkish legislator Koksal Toptan called for a boycott of French goods.
Last week, Erdogan turned down a series of proposals for reconciliation by French Interior Minister and presidential hopeful Nicolas Sarkozy, his office said Monday.
Among the demands of Sarkozy, who is staunchly opposed to EU membership for Turkey, were opening the Turkish-Armenian border and dropping a Turkish condition that only historians should represent both sides in a joint research committee. Turkey has accused Armenia of not responding to Turkish initiatives to jointly research the mass killings.
Last week, Turkey said it was out of the question to accept a call by French President Jacques Chirac for Ankara to acknowledge the mass killings of Armenians in the early 20th century as genocide.
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