Turkey denounces France's approval of Armenian genocide bill as " historical mistake"
In a statement released on Thursday after French parliament's approval of a bill making it a crime to deny Ottoman era incidents of 1915 with a prison term of one year and a fine of 45,000 euros, Turkish Foreign Ministry said the French initiative "defames Turkish history on the basis of one-sided interpretations and aims to deprive Turkey from the right to defend against this injustice. "
"It is unjust, inappropriate and contradicts relevant rules of international law," said the statement, adding that "it is extremely unfortunate that such a serious issue is abused for electoral purposes despite all the constructive warnings conveyed to French government."
Turkish officials said the French move aimed to win the votes of the 500,000 ethnic Armenians in France in next year's elections.
The Turkish Foreign Ministry statement said the bill restricted freedom of expression of all scholars and researchers looking at historical events from different perspectives and it contradicted the international law, European norms as well as the earlier reports of the French Parliament and French official declarations on the issue.
"It is a historical mistake," the statement said, adding that the French prejudiced approach and careless moves struck a heavy blow to the Turkey-France friendly relations that have been developing for centuries.
Lawmakers in the French National Assembly, the lower house of the parliament, voted Thursday in favor of a bill criminalizing those who refuse to recognize the killing of Armenians in 1915 as "genocide" in France. The bill will be debated next year in the French Senate.
As a response, Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Recep Erdogan announced a list of measures against France on Thursday, saying that Turkey would add more sanctions if the bill was passed by the French Senate.
On Tuesday, Turkey's President Abdullah Gul had warned France to give up voting on the bill and leave the writing of history to historians, saying "it is impossible for Turkey to accept the bill. " Turkish parliament also condemned its French counterpart's move.
Turkey and Armenia have been bogged down in a dispute over the World War I-era deaths of Armenians under the Ottoman rule. Armenia says the deaths occurred in a "genocide," while Turkey denies the charge and insists that the Armenians were victims of widespread chaos and governmental breakdown as the Ottoman Empire collapsed before modern Turkey was created.
Turkey rejects the term "genocide" for mass killings of Armenians in the World War I era, arguing the issue should be left to historians. Ankara has proposed to establish a joint commission by Turkish, Armenian and other international historians to discuss incidents in 1915, but Armenia has not responded positively to the offer.