Turkey may hit back at France with Algeria 'Genocide' law.

[Flagg]

TURKEY MAY HIT BACK AT FRANCE WITH ALGERIA 'GENOCIDE' LAW

Received Saturday, 7 October 2006 09:13:00 GMT

ANKARA, Oct 7, 2006 (AFP) - Turkey may retaliate to a draft French law making it a jailable offense to deny the Armenians were the victim of genocide under the Ottoman Empire with a similar law on French killings under colonial rule in Algeria, a senior lawmaker said in remarks published Saturday.
Koksal Toptan, head of the Turkish parliament's justice commission, told the mass-selling Sabah daily he had initially ignored proposals made in May for Turkey to brand killings of Algerians under French colonial rule as genocide and introduce prison terms for those who deny it.

<snip>

France already passed in 2001 a resolution recognizing the 1915-17 killings of Armenians as genocide.
The bill to criminalize genocide denial was first tabled in May but the debate ran out of parliamentary time before a vote could be held.
Toptan said Turkish MPs had filed three proposals for retaliative laws.
According to parliamentary records, two of them call for the recognition of the killings of Algerians under French colonial rule -- from 1830 to 1962 -- as genocide and the introduction of jail terms for those who deny it.
The third calls for the imprisonment of those who assert the Armenians were victims of genocide under Ottoman rule.

http://www.ttc.org/200610070913.k979d0124329.htm

[Kagemusha]

1. Why would I complain. Ok boys, let's pass both laws! Get to it!

Why delay? Do it today!

[Vidar]

2. Fair is fair.

[jellybeancurse]

3. I think all these laws

to make denial of anything are pretty ridiculous. When did governments get a monopoly on what is or isn't the truth?

[Kagemusha]

4. They've been aiming for that monopoly since

the first recorded Chinese Emperor decreed that all writing that preceded him, ALL WRITING THAT PRECEDED HIM, would be DESTROYED. And, so far as anyone can tell, it was. And that's why he's the first recorded Chinese Emperor.

Don't think it didn't leave a profound impression on his successors.

[IntravenousDemilo]

5. Oh, well, just in time for Thanksgiving.

Mmmmm, turkey with a big heap of genocide and gravy.

[Flagg]

6. TURKEY SEEKS FRENCH BUSINESSES' HELP AGAINST GENOCIDE BILL

Received Saturday, 7 October 2006 15:25:00 GMT

ISTANBUL, Oct 7, 2006 (AFP) - Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan met here Saturday with representatives of French companies doing business in Turkey in a bid to enlist their support against a controversial French bill that has threatened to poison bilateral ties.
The draft law, to be debated in the French parliament Thursday, makes it an offense to deny that Armenians were the victims of genocide under the Ottoman Empire during World War I.
"Erdogan asked French companies to lobby French legislators to try to avert the bill," Mustafa Abdullahoglu, an executive with a firm he did not name, told AFP after the meeting. "He said the bill would damage bilateral ties if adopted."
Abdullahoglu said he feared a boycott of French goods in Turkey if the bill was passed.

<snip>

France already passed in 2001 a resolution recognizing the killings as genocide, prompting Ankara to retaliate by sidelining French companies from public tenders and cancelling several projects awarded to French firms.
Armenians claim up to 1.5 million of their kin were slaughtered in orchestrated killings between 1915 and 1917.
Turkey rejects the genocide label, arguing that 300,000 Armenians and at least as many Turks died in civil strife when Armenians rose for independence in eastern Anatolia and sided with invading Russian troops as the Ottoman Empire was falling apart.

http://www.ttc.org/200610071525.k97fpp926436.htm