ISTANBUL. – Turkey’s MFA released a statement in connection with French President Nicolas Sarkozy’s declarations made in Armenia.
The statement notes that Turkish MFA receives Sarkozy’s words with astonishment and regret, Zaman daily of Turkey writes. “The French people will assess as to the degree such declarations, which are based on election calculations, correspond to French democracy, cultural and state traditions. Even though this problem, with respect to that painful time period in our joint history with the Armenians, is not discussed in several countries which are, or are not, parties, this can freely be discussed in Turkey.
Turkey will continue the constructive approaches toward improving Armenian-Turkish relations and finding avenues to resolve the events of 1915,” Turkish MFA’s statement reads.
During his state-level visit to Armenia, French President Nicolas Sarkozy stated that, if Turkey found strength in itself and reviewed its history, France would not pass the law criminalizing Armenian Genocide’s denial.
Turkey’s FM Ahmet Davutoglu and Minister for EU Affairs Egemen Bagis had immediately reacted to Sarkozy’s statement.
via We regret Sarkozy’s statements on 1915 – Turkish MFA | Armenia News – NEWS.am.
YEREVAN – French President Nicolas Sarkozy urged Turkey on Friday to recognise the World War I-era massacres of Armenians as genocide within a “very brief” period before his term ends in May 2012.
“From 1915 to 2011, it seems to be enough (time) for reflection,” Sarkozy told reporters in Yerevan on the second day of his visit to Armenia.
Speaking alongside his Armenian counterpart Serzh Sarkisian, he noted however that “it is not up to France to give an ultimatum to anyone”.
Sarkozy on Thursday urged Turkey to “revisit its history” over the killings of hundreds of thousands of Armenians under the Ottoman Empire, calling its refusal to recognise the deaths as genocide as “unacceptable”.
The French president said that if Turkey did not make this “gesture of peace” and “step towards reconciliation”, he would consider proposing the adoption of a law criminalising denial of the killings as genocide.
He said that he was still hoping that Turkey would act before the end of his term in office.
Sarkozy angered Turkey ahead of his election in 2007 by backing a law aimed at prosecuting those who refused to recognise the massacres as genocide.
The French lower house of parliament later rejected the measure, infuriating the Armenian diaspora in France which is estimated at around 500,000 people.
Armenians say that up to 1.5 million of their kin fell victim to genocide during World War I under the Ottoman Empire.
Turkey counters that 300,000 to 500,000 Armenians and at least as many Turks died in civil strife when Armenians rose up against their Ottoman rulers and sided with invading Russian forces.
Sarkozy has also indicated his ambition to bring Armenia and neighbouring Azerbaijan forward in the stalled peace process over the tiny Nagorny Karabakh region, the focus of a bitter territorial conflict since the fall of the Soviet Union.
On the eve of his arrival, the French leader urged the two rivals to “take the risk of peace”.
At the joint news conference in Yerevan, Armenian leader Sarkisian responded by saying that he appreciated France’s efforts to establish “a durable peace”.
“President Sarkozy’s personal involvement in this process is particularly important to us,” Sarkisian said.
But in a sign of continuing tensions along the Karabakh frontline, two Azerbaijani soldiers and one Armenian serviceman were reported to have been shot dead in exchanges of fire the day before Sarkozy arrived.
Seventeen soldiers have now been reported killed this year around Karabakh, which Armenian separatists backed by Yerevan seized from Azerbaijan in a war in the 1990s that left some 30,000 dead.
Despite years of talks since the 1994 ceasefire, the two sides have yet to sign a final peace deal.
Sarkozy was due to arrive in Azerbaijan after leaving Armenia and then to end his two-day swing through the Caucasus with a visit to Georgia.
via Sarkozy urges Turkey to quickly recognise Armenia ‘genocide’ | Pakistan Today | Latest news, Breaking news, Pakistan News, World news, business, sport and multimedia.
YEREVAN, Armenia (AP) — French President Nicolas Sarkozy has urged Turkey to recognize the 1915 massacre of Armenians by Ottoman Turks as genocide.
AP Photo/PanARMENIAN, Tigran MehrabyanFrench President Nicolas Sarkozy, left, and Armenian President Serge Sarkisian applaud at the French Square, in Yerevan, Armenia, Friday, Oct. 7, 2011. Sarkozy has urged Turkey to recognize the 1915 massacre of Armenians by Ottoman Turks as genocide. Sarkozy said Friday during a news conference in the Armenian capital that Turkey's refusal to do so would force France to change its law and make such denial a criminal offense.YEREVAN, Armenia (AP) — French President Nicolas Sarkozy has urged Turkey to recognize the 1915 massacre of Armenians by Ottoman Turks as genocide.Sarkozy told Friday's news conference in the Armenian capital
Sarkozy told Friday’s news conference in the Armenian capital that Turkey’s refusal to do so would force France to change its law and make such denial a criminal offense.
via France Urges Turkey to Recognize Armenian Genocide.
French president is in official visit in Kafkas region. He was in Armenia bowing down to a monument for so called Armenian Genocide by Turkish Ottoman’s, He threatened Turkey to face its past or expect harsh reactions! He also said that Karabakh is known better by Armenians and the government of Armenia, meaning, Karabakh belongs to Armenians. This statement is against UN’s resolutions on Karabakh conflict, and is against the integrity of Northern Azerbaijan (United Azerbaijan in fact). He then travels to Baku, where the Aliev dictatorship welcome’s him for attacking Turkey and Azerbaijan!
According to Hurriyet, Turkey said France should confront its colonial past before giving lessons to others on how to face history, in an angry response today to a call by President Nicolas Sarkozy for Ankara to recognize the 1915 massacre of Armenians as genocide.
Sarkozy, in Armenia on Thursday, challenged Turkey — which is seeking membership of the European Union — to face up to its past and threatened to pass a law in France that would make denying the genocide a crime.
Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu told a news conference: “Those who will not be able to face their own history for having carried out colonialism for centuries, for treating foreigners as second-class people, do not have the right to teach Turkey a history lesson or call for Turkey to face its history.”
Davutoğlu said Turkey and Armenia were working together on ways to normalise ties and Sarkozy’s comments would have a negative impact on reconciliation efforts.
Armenia and Turkey, with the endorsement of the United States, the European Union and Russia, had agreed in 2009 to establish diplomatic ties and open their common border within two months of parliamentary approval.
Sarkozy’s remarks has fueled a response from Turkey’s European Affairs Minister Egemen Bağış as well, who stated earlier today that the French president should abandon “the role of historian and put his mind to getting his country out of the economic gulf in which it finds itself.”hurriyet
via Sarkozy takes Armenian’s side and praises the occupation of Karabakh, Turkey tells France to confront colonial past first.
* 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.
French President Nicolas Sarkozy urged Turkey on Thursday to “revisit” its history regarding the 1915 massacre of Armenians in the Ottoman Empire, which France views as a genocide but Turkey does not.
“Turkey, which is a great country, would be honorable to revisit its history like the other great countries in the world have done: Germany, France,” Sarkozy told journalists at a joint press conference with Armenian counterpart Serge Sarkisyan.
“The genocide of Armenians is a historic reality that was recognised by France. Collective denial is even worse than individual denial,” he said.
“We are always stronger when we look our history in the face, and denial is not acceptable.”
Sarkozy was speaking after visiting Armenia’s Genocide National Museum to pay respects to Armenians killed in the massacre, an extremely sensitive issue that has kept Armenia and Turkey from establishing formal diplomatic relations.
Asked whether France should adopt a law prosecuting anyone who denies that the massacres were “genocide”, Sarkozy replied that “if Turkey revisited its history, looked it in the face, with its shadows and highlights, this recognition of the genocide would be sufficient.”
“But if Turkey will not do this, then without a doubt it would be necessary to go further,” he said.
Sarkozy angered Turkey ahead of his election in 2007 by backing a law aimed at prosecuting those who refuse to recognise the event as a genocide.
The French lower house of parliament later rejected the measure, infuriating an Armenian diaspora of some 500,000 people.
Sarkozy was to dine with Sarkisyan later Thursday and continue his tour of Caucasus states Azerbaijan and Georgia on Friday.
The statement notes that Turkish MFA receives Sarkozy’s words with astonishment and regret, Zaman daily of Turkey writes. “The French people will assess as to the degree such declarations, which are based on election calculations, correspond to French democracy, cultural and state traditions. Even though this problem, with respect to that painful time period in our joint history with the Armenians, is not discussed in several countries which are, or are not, parties, this can freely be discussed in Turkey.
