Tag: Paris

  • Türkiye determined to improve ties with Paris

    Türkiye determined to improve ties with Paris

    parisTurkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said his country was determined to improve bilateral relations with France.

    “We have deep-rooted and historical ties between Türkiye and France, and our both countries are committed to move relations forward in a visionary and positive spirit,” Davutoglu told a press conference in Paris after a bilateral meeting with his French counterpart Laurent Fabius on Thursday.

    Davutoglu said there would be more frequent high level talks between the two countries’ officials and their parliaments, adding that cooperation would be also be boosted in many regional issues.

    Davutoglu said France had become “more positive” over Türkiye’s European Union accession bid, adding that he had called for the removal of France’s blocking on five policy areas in Turkey’s membership negotiations and that France was likely to assume a more positive stance in that respect.

    The Turkish FM said Türkiye had lifted sanctions it started imposing on France after a row in January over a French legislation that made it illegal to deny Armenian allegations on the incidents of 1915 in Ottoman Turkey.

    The law was later annulled by France’s top constitutional authority.

    Davutoglu said Türkiye was set to open two consulates in Bordeaux and Nantes as well as a culture center in Paris.

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

    Turkish Press

  • Turks march in Paris to denounce genocide bill

    Turks march in Paris to denounce genocide bill

    paris 1PARIS (AP) — Thousands of Turks from across Europe marched through the French capital Saturday denouncing a bill that would make it a crime to deny that the killing of Armenians by Ottoman Turks nearly a century ago was genocide.

    Turks young and old, waving their country’s red flag, or wrapped in it, marched to the Senate, where the bill will be debated Monday after passage in December in the lower house.

    paris 2They carried banners reading “No to Sarkozy Shame Law,” ”History for Historians, Politics for Politicians” or other slogans denouncing an alleged bid by President Nicolas Sarkozy to “fish for votes” among French Armenians before the two-round presidential elections in April and May.

    Critics claim the real aim of the bill is to ensure votes for PresidentNicolas Sarkozy from French Armenians in the two-round presidential elections in April and May. An estimated 500,000 Armenians live in France.

    The measure would make it a crime to deny that mass killings of Armenians in 1915 by Ottoman Turks constitute genocide. It sets a punishment of up to one year in prison and a fine of €45,000 ($59,000) for those who deny or “outrageously minimize” the killings — putting such action on par with denial of the Holocaust.

    France formally recognized the 1915 killings as genocide in 2001, but provided no penalty for anyone refuting that.

    Despite the passing of nearly 100 years since the killings, the issue remains a deeply emotional one for Armenians who lost loved ones and for Turks who see a challenge to their national honor.

    An irate Turkey briefly recalled its ambassador to France and suspended military, economic and political ties.

    “Politicians who haven’t read an article on this say there was a genocide,” said Beyhan Yildirim, 35, a demonstrator from Berlin. He was among those bused into Paris from Germany and elsewhere for Saturday’s march.

    Scores of buses from France, Germany and elsewhere lined the streets of southern Paris where the march began.

    Armenians plan a demonstration near the Senate on Monday before the debate and vote.

    It was unclear whether the measure would get the easy ride it did in the National Assembly, the lower but more powerful house.

    The Senate is controlled by the rival Socialists who had earlier backed the bill. However, the Senate Commission on Laws voted against its passage last week, saying the measure risks violating constitutional protections including freedom of speech. The question is whether the Socialists will heed the recommendations if only because the issue is becoming an electoral hot potato.

    Compromising freedom of expression in France, considered the cradle of human rights, has been a key argument of the Turkish government against the measure.

    It is unclear whether lawmakers in the National Assembly had an inkling in advance that their vote giving the green light to the bill would trigger a diplomatic dispute. There appeared to be less than 100 lawmakers present for the Dec. 22 vote — out of 577.

    Fadime Ertugrul-Tastan, deputy mayor of small Normandy town of Herouville, was among those demonstrating against the bill on Saturday, wearing the blue, white and red sash of French officials.

    She said her family hailed from Kars, near the Armenian border, and her grandparents were killed by Armenians.

    “I am here to honor their memory,” she said, adding, “There was no genocide because we were in a period of war.”

  • Tarih Yalan Soylemez 2

    Tarih Yalan Soylemez 2

    Tarih yalan söylemez 2 görselini buradan indirebilirsiniz.
    Harita1

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  • Turkey’s President opens Embassy, Culture Center in Kazakhstan

    Turkey’s President opens Embassy, Culture Center in Kazakhstan

    Culture CenterTurkey’s President Abdullah Gul inaugurated Turkey’s Embassy and a Turkish Culture Center in the Kazakh capital Astana on Wednesday.

    Delivering a speech in the inauguration ceremony, Gul said, “we are very happy because we are opening the new building of the Turkish embassy.”

    Gul recalled that Turkey was the first country that recognized the independence of Kazakhstan.

    Later Gul and Kazakhstan’s President Nursultan Nazarbayev visited the International Exhibition of Arms and Military-Technical Equipment KADEX-2010 in Astana.

    President Gul also met with Kazakh and Turkish businessmen over a luncheon.

    Yunus Emre Culture Center, named after a 13th century Turkish poet and Sufi mystic, has become the fifth culture center opened abroad. Yunus Emre Foundation had earlier opened centers in Sarajevo, Tirana, Cairo and Skopje. The foundation plans to open new culture centers in Cologne, London, Moscow, Paris and Damascus this year.

    President Gul also said that Yunus Emre Culture Center aims to keep Turkish language and culture alive, and also to spread it.

    He said that Turkish culture prevailed in the Balkans and Central Asia, adding that these culture centers would help those who want to learn Turkish.

    Following the inauguration ceremony, Gul also visited a Turkish-Kazakh high school in Astana.

    Later, Gul departed from Kazakhstan to return home.

    AA