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Newsdesk, October
2, -- French president Jacques Chirac paid no heed
to Turkish sensitivities on his first-ever visit to
Armenia this weekend, calling on Turkey to own up to
"genocide" before joining the EU and comparing the
killings to Nazi Germany's holocaust.
"Should Turkey recognise the
genocide of Armenia to join the EU?" Mr Chirac
asked, AP reports. "I believe so. Each country grows
by acknowledging the dramas and errors of its
past...Can one say that Germany, which has deeply
acknowledged the holocaust, has as a result lost
credit? It has grown."
The French leader made the remarks in Yerevan on
Saturday (30 September) at a wreath-laying ceremony
beside the country's "Genocide Monument", before
visiting the "Genocide Museum" and writing the
solitary word "remember" in the visitors' book.
Armenia says Turkish forces slaughtered 1.5 million
Armenians between 1915 and 1917 but the Turkish
government and Turkish history books claim that
300,000 Armenians and 300,000 Turks died in a 'civil
war' in the region.
Fifteen countries, including France, Switzerland,
Russia and Argentina, have previously classified the
killings as "genocide" - defined by the UN as
"harmful acts...committed with intent to destroy, in
whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial or
religious group."
In Turkey, any deviation from the official line can
land novelists or university professors in jail
under article 301 of the country's new penal code
against "insulting Turkishness."
But there has been no official reaction to Mr
Chirac's statements so far, despite mumblings by
unnamed Turkish diplomats in the Turkish Daily News
that they are "worried" about worsening bilateral
relations.
Chirac goes further than EU
The French leader's remarks go further than
Brussels' formal EU accession conditions, which
require Ankara to boost democratic standards in
areas such as free speech and to lift its blockade
on Cypriot shipping - but do not mention the thorny
Armenian question.
MEPs voting on a highly-critical report on Turkey's
EU accession progress last week also opted to cut
out a clause calling for recognition of the Armenian
genocide for fear of stirring up a nationalist
backlash in the EU's most controversial candidate
state.
Armenia itself has so far shied away from
confrontation on the subject, with president Robert
Kocharian on Saturday saying merely "we would like
that our interests be discussed" in the EU-Turkey
accession talks.
The small, landlocked country of 3.6 million people
is in a tricky position: it has closed borders with
Turkey in the west; the prospect of a
Russian-Georgian conflict in the north; escalating
tensions with Azerbaijan in the east and borders
with international pariah Iran in the south.
But France plans to keep on pressing the issue with
a vote tabled in parliament on 12 October over a
fresh resolution that Turkey must give the Armenian
killings their proper name.
About 400,000 Armenian ex-pats live in France, with
some - such as singer Charles Aznavour - rising to
social prominence and with Paris promising to hold a
referendum before it ratifies Turkish EU accession
in the future.
AP | euobserver com
First world war
massacres | Related
issue:
Armenian Genocide by Turkish Muslims against
Christians
Turkey faces international pressure to recognise
that more than 1 million Armenians were massacred
during a 1915 campaign of ethnic cleansing by
Ottoman Turks. Turkish officials claim that most
deaths were caused by hunger and disease.
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