Tag: Nicholas Sarkozy

Sarkozy challenges Turkey to face its history

* Sarkozy visits memorial to Armenian genocide

* Sarkozy to urge Georgia to mend ties with Russia

* Revives memories of mediating role over 2008 war (Adds Russia finalising military base deals)

By Emmanuel Jarry

French President Nicolas Sarkozy, left, and Armenian President Serge Sarkisian lay flowers at the Armenian Genocide Memorial in Yerevan, Armenia. -AP Photo

YEREVAN, Oct 6 (Reuters) – French President Nicolas Sarkozy, on a brief trip to the Caucasus, urged Turkey on Thursday to recognize the 1915 massacre of Armenians as genocide, threatening to pass a law in France that would make denying this a crime.

Visiting a genocide memorial and museum in Yerevan, Armenia, with Armenian President Serzh Sarksyan, Sarkozy challenged Turkey — which is seeking membership of the European Union — to face up to its past.

“The Armenian genocide is a historical reality. Collective denial is even worse than individual denial,” Sarkozy told reporters.

“Turkey, which is a great country, would honour itself to revisit its history like other great countries in the world have done.”

Armenia was the first stop on a two-day trip to the region by Sarkozy, who is keen to raise his profile on the international stage before an April presidential election. He visits Azerbaijan and Georgia on Friday.

France is opposed to Turkey’s bid for EU membership and his comments on the sensitive subject are likely to be viewed as unwelcome meddling by Ankara.

Turkey denies the deaths of Armenians in 1915 was genocide. It says both Christian Armenians and Muslim Turks died in large numbers as the Ottoman empire collapsed.

Sarkozy suggested that the French parliament might consider a law making denial of the deaths of Armenians as genocide a crime, similar to the French law against Holocaust denial.

FROZEN CONFLICT

While in the region, Sarkozy will try to encourage Sarksyan and the president of Azerbaijan, Ilham Aliyev, to resolve a conflict over Nagorno-Karabakh, a mainly Armenian-populated enclave in Azerbaijan.

France plays a leading role in the Minsk Group of countries from the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE), which is trying to resolve the conflict in Nagorno-Karabakh.

Armenian-backed forces wrested Nagorno-Karabakh from Azeri control after the Soviet Union collapsed. When the conflict ended in a ceasefire in 1994, 30,000 people had been killed and about 1 million had been driven from their homes.

During a three-hour visit to Georgia, Sarkozy will also urge Georgia to improve relations with Russia, reviving memories of his mediating role when the two countries went to war in 2008.

Sarkozy’s success in brokering a ceasefire in that conflict guarantees a warm welcome in the capital Tbilisi, where he will meet President Mikheil Saakashvili and address a crowd in the central Freedom Square.

Sarkozy will urge Saakashvili to look beyond the countries’ differences, including over how they interpret the ceasefire terms, and rebuild trust in relations with Moscow.

Each side accuses the other of acting provocatively and sabotaging relations. Moscow has angered Tbilisi and the West by recognising Georgia’s breakaway Abkhazia and South Ossetia regions as independent states.

In Moscow on Thursday, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev met Abkhazia’s new president and signed legislation ratifying treaties that enable Russia to operate military bases in the two separatist regions for at least 49 years.

It was not clear whether Sarkozy would discuss Russia’s bid to join the World Trade Organization which Georgia, as a member, could block. Moscow hopes to complete its entry to the 153-member trading body this year.

HOPING TO BOOST RATINGS

Sarkozy mediated the 2008 ceasefire on behalf of the European Union as France held the bloc’s presidency at the time.

That ended the war over Abkhazia and South Ossetia, but Georgia says Russia has violated the terms by not withdrawing troops to the positions they held before the war.

TV images of Sarkozy addressing jubilant crowds will do him no harm as he tries to improve his poor ratings before the two-round election on April 22 and May 6. An opinion poll on Tuesday put Socialist Francois Hollande well in the lead.

Sarkozy will also promote business during his visit to the region but officials gave no details of any planned contracts.

French oil group Total said last month it had made a major gas discovery at Azerbaijan’s Absheron block in the Caspian Sea. French companies could also be in the running to help extend the Baku metro, or subway. (Reporting by Margarita Antidze in Tbilisi and Emmanuel Jarry in Paris, Writing by Timothy Heritage and Alexandria Sage; Editing by Myra MacDonald)

via UPDATE 2-Sarkozy challenges Turkey to face its history | Reuters.

October 7, 2011
France pays Roma to go home

France pays Roma to go home

France has expelled nearly 100 Roma gypsies to their native Romania.

The resettlement came as part of a very public effort by conservative President Nicolas Sarkozy to dismantle Roma camps and sweep them out of the country.

In the southeastern town of Saint-Martin d’Heres, near Grenoble, about 150 riot police removed about 100 Roma adults and 45 children Thursday. Another 25 Roma were taken from their camp near Lille early on Thursday.

Mr Sarkozy has linked Roma to crime, calling their camps sources of trafficking, exploitation of children and prostitution.

On July 28, he pledged that illegal Roma camps would be “systematically evacuated”. Some 50 camps have been emptied since then.

Those repatriated on Thursday left “on a voluntary basis” and were given small sums of money – 300 euros for each adult and 100 euros for children – to help them get back on their feet in their home country.

Roma advocates countered that the repatriations were hardly voluntary, claiming that those who refused the deal would end up in holding centres and eventually be sent home without funds.

, 19 August 2010

August 22, 2010
Fear stalks the markets as euro crisis worsens

By James Moore, Deputy Business Editor

Saturday, 15 May 2010

Markets suffered another day of wild swings yesterday amid continued concerns over the Greek debt crisis and its effect on the euro.

The latest round of selling was sparked by reports that the French President, Nicholas Sarkozy, had threatened to pull France out of the euro if Germany failed to get onside with a bailout of the heavily indebted Greek economy. The uncertainty was exacerbated when Josef Ackermann, the chief executive of Deutsche Bank, suggested in an interview that Greece might not ever pay back its debts.

The turmoil saw the FTSE 100 ending down 170.8 points at 5262. Across the Atlantic the Dow opened sharply down, while other major European markets finished deeply in the red.

The euro also fell steeply on global currency markets. Against the dollar it dropped under $1.24, to its lowest level since October 2008. The weakness in the euro also meant that the pound gained ground against the single currency, rising nearly 1 per cent, or just over a cent. Since the beginning of 2010, as the debt crisis has worsened, the euro has lost about 13.5 per cent against the dollar.

Yesterday G7 finance ministers held a conference call to discuss the global economic situation and the ongoing crisis. George Osborne, the Chancellor, is understood to have told his counterparts that the Government’s priority is an accelerated outline reduction of Britain’s fiscal deficit. Mr Osborne has promised an emergency budget within 50 days of the new Government taking office.

It came amid speculation that the UK could be the next country to face a speculative attack if the eurozone does stabilise as a result of the Greek bailout. Some commentators have even suggested that France might not be immune from the contagion.

George Buckley, economist at Deutsche Bank, said: “There is still a lot of uncertainty out there and you can’t solve everything with a single package. The coalition looks stable at the moment but there will be disagreements and that has even been recognised by both parties.” He said there was a wider concern throughout Europe: that governments might not act to cut deficits soon enough. “And if they don’t, where do we go next?”

Philip Shaw, economist at Investec, said: “Markets are still concerned that Europe is stalling, and that’s an issue for them, because they are always unsure until some time after governments actually take action to introduce austerity measures and that there is evidence that the measures are actually working.”

Mr Shaw added: “As far as Greece is concerned it is far from clear that it is actually out of the woods. The package covers its financing needs until 2011 but if it fails to implement the [austerity] measures or its economy takes a sharper downturn than was expected, then by next year the country may find it difficult to borrow money at an interest rate that it is prepared to pay.”

Economists say Britain does have several advantages over Greece and other eurozone countries with debt problems such as Spain, Portugal and even Italy, which collectively with Ireland have been given the unflattering acronym of Piigs by economists.

The UK has a floating exchange rate and its debt is much longer-term than Greece. It also has a flexible economy and a stable tax base, which is collected. However, David Buik, partner at BGC Partners, said: “I doubt there is a single person on the planet who can seriously put his hand on his heart and say that he is certain that Greece at the bottom and even the UK can service or repay its debt over the timetables that have been set out. Politicians have simply not been willing to talk about the pain that doing this will inflict.”

The Independent

May 15, 2010