PanARMENIAN.Net – Recently, the relations between Turkey and France were rather strained. The adoption of a bill criminalizing the denial of Armenian Genocide would further exacerbate them, according to a Turkish Studies expert.
Commenting on the French Senate’s non-adoption of the bill in a conversation with a PanARMENIAN.Net reporter, Ruben Melkonyannoted, “with Turkey’s increasing presence in the international scene, many countries, including France, have to reckon with it. Recent international situation does not favor adoption of Genocide resolutions or similar draft laws,” he said.
The expert noted with regret that the Genocide issue was turned into a bargain between the states.
Dwelling on the response of France’s Armenian community, the expert noted, “I expect the reaction will be sharp, yet I’m more interested in the response of Charles Aznavour, who earlier said he’d undertake drastic steps were the bill not adopted.”
The French Senate on Wednesday, May 4 rejected a bill penalizing the denial of Armenian Genocide.
The bill, which was recently rejected by the French Senate Constitution Commission, envisioned five years in prison and a fine of up to 45,000 euros for people on French soil who deny Armenian Genocide. The bill was not endorsed by the French government either.
Earlier, the Coordination Council of Armenian Organizations of France called on Armenian community representatives to gather in front of the Senate during the discussion of the bill to be presented by Serge Lagauche at 2:30 pm Paris time.
via Expert on Genocide bill: France decided against impairing ties with Turkey – PanARMENIAN.Net.
Despite obvious pressure by Turkey, Armenian community in France goes on lobbying for adoption of the bill criminalizing denial of Armenian Genocide under the Ottoman Turkey in the early 20th century, French office of Hay Dat (Armenian Cause) and Political Affairs of Armenian Revolutionary Federation Dashnaktsutyun (ARFD) said in a statement.
Representatives of the Armenian community are full-fledged citizens of France and have a right to demand adoption of a bill by the MPs, while Turkey’s intervention in the internal affairs of France is unacceptable.
On May 4, the French Senate will consider a resolution, criminalizing the denial of Armenian Genocide under Ottoman Turkey in the early 20th century.
via Turkey’s intervention unacceptable – Armenian community of France | Armenia News – NEWS.am.
Prime Minister David Cameron, President Barack Obama and President Nicolas Sarkozy have written a joint article on Libya underlining their determination that Qadhafi must “go and go for good”.
Read the article
Together with our NATO allies and coalition partners, the United States, France and Britain have been united at the UN Security Council, as well as the following Paris Conference, in building a broad-based coalition to respond to the crisis in Libya. We are equally united on what needs to happen in order to end it.
Even as we continue military operations today to protect civilians in Libya, we are determined to look to the future. We are convinced that better times lie ahead for the people of Libya, and a pathway can be forged to achieve just that.
We must never forget the reasons why the international community was obliged to act in the first place. As Libya descended into chaos with Colonel Qadhafi attacking his own people, the Arab League called for action. The Libyan opposition called for help. And the people of Libya looked to the world in their hour of need. In an historic Resolution, the United Nations Security Council authorised all necessary measures to protect the people of Libya from the attacks upon them. By responding immediately, our countries halted the advance of Qadhafi’s forces. The bloodbath that he had promised to inflict upon the citizens of the besieged city of Benghazi has been prevented.
Tens of thousands of lives have been protected. But the people of Libya are suffering terrible horrors at Qadhafi’s hands each and every day. His rockets and his shells rained down on defenceless civilians in Ajdabiya. The city of Misrata is enduring a mediaeval siege, as Qadhafi tries to strangle its population into submission. The evidence of disappearances and abuses grows daily.
Our duty and our mandate under UN Security Council Resolution 1973 is to protect civilians, and we are doing that. It is not to remove Qadhafi by force. But it is impossible to imagine a future for Libya with Qadhafi in power. The International Criminal Court is rightly investigating the crimes committed against civilians and the grievous violations of international law. It is unthinkable that someone who has tried to massacre his own people can play a part in their future government. The brave citizens of those towns that have held out against forces that have been mercilessly targeting them would face a fearful vengeance if the world accepted such an arrangement. It would be an unconscionable betrayal.
Furthermore, it would condemn Libya to being not only a pariah state, but a failed state too. Qadhafi has promised to carry out terrorist attacks against civilian ships and airliners. And because he has lost the consent of his people any deal that leaves him in power would lead to further chaos and lawlessness. We know from bitter experience what that would mean. Neither Europe, the region, or the world can afford a new safe haven for extremists.
There is a pathway to peace that promises new hope for the people of Libya. A future without Qadhafi that preserves Libya’s integrity and sovereignty, and restores her economy and the prosperity and security of her people. This needs to begin with a genuine end to violence, marked by deeds not words. The regime has to pull back from the cities it is besieging, including Ajdabiya, Misrata and Zintan, and their forces return to their barracks. However, so long as Qadhafi is in power, NATO and its coalition partners must maintain their operations so that civilians remain protected and the pressure on the regime builds. Then a genuine transition from dictatorship to an inclusive constitutional process can really begin, led by a new generation of leaders. In order for that transition to succeed, Colonel Qadhafi must go and go for good. At that point, the United Nations and its members should help the Libyan people as they rebuild where Qadhafi has destroyed – to repair homes and hospitals, to restore basic utilities, and to assist Libyans as they develop the institutions to underpin a prosperous and open society.
This vision for the future of Libya has the support of a broad coalition of countries, including many from the Arab world. These countries came together in London on 29 March and founded a Contact Group which met this week in Doha to support a solution to the crisis that respects the will of the Libyan people.
Today, NATO and its coalition partners are acting in the name of the United Nations with an unprecedented international legal mandate. But it will be the people of Libya, not the UN, that choose their new constitution, elect their new leaders, and write the next chapter in their history.
Britain, France and the United States will not rest until the United Nations Security Council resolutions have been implemented and the Libyan people can choose their own future.
By Justin Vela and Alina Lehtinen for Southeast European Times in Istanbul — 13/04/11
Reuters A ship passes through the Bosphorus to the Black Sea in Istanbul.
photo
France’s President Nicolas Sarkozy (left) and Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan met in February. [Reuters]
Ankara has long been at odds with Paris over its view that Turkey should not join the EU. Now, the conflict in Libya has only heightened tensions. The French were one of the first to say there should be a military no-fly zone over Libya.
According to French foreign policy expert Ulla Holm, from the Danish Institute for International Studies, France wanted to act fast in Libya because it had been criticised over its slow reactions in Tunisia and Egypt.
“France wants to represent itself as the country that knows about the south. Sarkozy wanted to act as quickly as possible in relation to Libya in order to forget what happened in Tunisia,” Holm told SETimes.
During a speech in Istanbul earlier this month, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan accused France of thinking more about the oil resources in Libya than humanitarian aspects. “I wish that those who only see oil, gold mines and underground treasures when they look in that direction would see the region through their conscience from now on,” said Erdogan.
Experts have said that Erdogan’s rhetoric surrounding the Western intervention in Libya is aimed at both bolstering Turkey’s influence as a global player and appealing to his party’s domestic base ahead of June 12th elections.
Just before the Libya operation begun, France chose not to invite Turkey to a summit in Paris. After the summit, Turkish leaders accused France of trying to strong-arm the Libya operations.
“France was handling the whole situation and monopolising it. It was against that attitude that Turkey has taken an opposition to,” explained Bogazici University Professor Gun Kut.
Both Turkey and France hope to be regional powers in North Africa. Turkey wants to appear among the powerful and influential globally, and France wants to be seen as a major player in the Mediterranean region.
After World War I, Britain, France and Italy replaced the Ottomans as colonial powers in North Africa. Holm explained that because of its colonial past, France considers the area as a part of its sphere of influence. Even though Libya was never a French colony, France wants to play a role in the entire region.
“France has a very close relationship with North Africa because of its colonial past. France has close ties with the Europeanised elite, especially in Morocco and Tunisia. Many people from these countries received their higher education in France,” Holm said.
Kut does not think that Turkish and French interests in North Africa are colliding and said that Turkey is only reacting to Sarkozy’s decision to exclude the country from the decision-making process.
“All of a sudden Turkey found itself in a position to be sidelined and marginalised by France,” he said. “Otherwise, Turkey does not have disagreements with France [over Libya].”
This content was commissioned for SETimes.com.
via Libya crisis raises Turkey, France tensions (SETimes.com).
Turkish National Defense Minister Vecdi Gonul said Monday that Turkey had difficulty in understanding France’s leading role in using force against Libya.
Speaking to reporters while receiving Macedonian Minister of Defense Zoran Konjanovski and an accompanying delegation in Ankara, Vecdi Gonul said that they had difficulty in understanding France’s role that seemed like one executing the relevant United Nations (UN) resolution.
We have difficulty in understanding France’s leading role in using force against Libya. We have seen later that the United States is part of the use of force against Libya. Our Ministry and the Turkish General Staff held talks and are currently holding talks with the sides prior to and after the beginning of air strike on Libya. We continue to receive information and this is where we stand now, Gonul added.
UN Did Not Demand Any Combat Forces For Operation Directed Against Libya, Gonul Says
Gonul said that the United Nations did not demand any combat forces for the operation directed against Libya.
Vecdi Gonul said that participating in the UN operation on Libya was voluntary and that countries volunteered to become a part of the UN operation.
Unfortunately, Libya is progressing towards an internal crisis, Gonul said.
The UN Security Council adopted the resolution no. 1973 which involves the use of force. This is a decision of the UN and not NATO, Gonul stressed.
Asked if the UN demanded any combat troops from Turkey, Gonul said that the UN did not demand any force.
Countries are acting on a voluntary basis to be a part of UN operation against Libya, Gonul underlined.
Touching on the evacuation of Turkish citizens from Libya, Gonul said that the evacuation of Turks from Libya was an extremely right decision.
We thought that the Turkish citizens in Libya would be left between two fires. However, there is now fire from three sides, Gonul also said.
Turkey’s prime minister has criticized the severity of the ongoing military operation in Libya, as proposals are being made to transfer control of the operation to NATO. There are questions about whether Turkey, as a NATO member, would accept such a move. Analysts say Ankara’s stance could well be influenced by tensions with France.
Turkey's prime minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan (file photo)
Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan used his weekly address to his parliamentary deputies to slam the Western-led air strikes in Libya, and he questioned their stated humanitarian motive.
He said the operation is being perceived by Libya and others as oil- and profit-oriented and as an intervention by the West. He said Turkey will not be on the side that points a gun towards Libya.
Mr. Erdogan has been deeply skeptical of any intervention since the beginning of the popular uprising against Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi. Until the last few days, he refused to join his Western allies in calling on Mr. Gadhafi to stand down. Such a stance plays well in Turkey, which remains deeply suspicious of Western military intervention in Muslim countries, according to diplomatic correspondent Semih Idiz of the Turkish daily Milliyet.
“He [Erodgan] is trying to balance his own public opinion in an election year, and he is trying to balance the commitment Turkey has to the various organizations it is a member of or wants to be a member of. So this is a subtle balancing act that he is maintaining, but the bottom line will be if Turkey can come out and say clearly no in NATO,” Idiz said.
Mr. Erdogan, in his Tuesday address, seemed to hint that Turkey could use its veto as a NATO member to stop the alliance from taking control of the Libyan military operation. He said only the United Nations should lead such an operation.
Turkish Foreign Ministry official Selim Yenel, the deputy undersecretary for bilateral affairs and public diplomacy, says NATO leadership of military actions in Libya would give Ankara a say in how the operation proceeds. Yenel says this is the reason French President Nicolas Sarkozy did not invite Turkey to last week’s Paris summit, which preceded the air strikes on Libya.
“Well, we were rather surprised and taken aback by the decision. I guess the French thought that we would prevent them from proceeding. The French had opposed the planning at NATO so we don’t know what the coalition is doing. We are not in the loop, we have been left out. So that’s why we believe that NATO should take charge of it,” Yenel said.
Diplomatic correspondent Idiz says France’s leadership in the strikes has particularly irked Ankara, adding a chill to relations already strained over President Sarkozy’s vocal opposition to Turkey’s EU membership bid.
“Given the personnel animosity that Erdogan and Sarkozy feel for each other, I don’t think there is much love lost between the two capitals at the moment. I do also think there is a brinkmanship, one-upmanship going on between the two capitals. France seems to have passed Turkey in the race over Libya, and Ankara is clearly smarting from this,” Idiz said.
But professor of international relations Cengiz Aktar, at Bahcesehir University, warns such rivalry risks losing sight of what is really important.
“Erdogan gives [the] impression he is against the international intervention because he is angry with Sarkozy. This can’t be serious. In international relations, this sort of anger does not count. What counts is the interest of [the] country or the safety and security of human beings,” Aktar said.
It is not the first time Mr. Erdogan and Mr. Sarkozy have opposed each other. But with the crisis in Libya deepening, some analysts say the consequences of this rivalry could have far reaching consequences.
via Turkey Wary at Fellow NATO Member France’s ‘Prominent Role’ in Libya | Europe | English.
PanARMENIAN.Net – Recently, the relations between Turkey and France were rather strained. The adoption of a bill criminalizing the denial of Armenian Genocide would further exacerbate them, according to a Turkish Studies expert.
