Armenia Thanks France for Genocide Bill<\/p>\n
PARIS \u2014 France\u2019s President Nicolas Sarkozy dismissed on Friday Turkey\u2019s furious reaction to the passage of a French bill criminalizing the denial of the Armenian Genocide, saying that Ankara cannot teach his country any \u201clessons.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI respect the views of our Turkish friends \u2014 it\u2019s a great country, a great civilization \u2014 and they must respect ours,\u201d the AFP news agency quoted Sarkozy as saying in Prague where he attended the funeral of late Czech President Vaclav Havel.<\/p>\n
\u201cFrance is not giving lessons to anyone but does not want them either,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cUnder all circumstances, we must remain calm \u2026 France does not ask for permission, France has its convictions, human rights, and respect for memory,\u201d added Sarkozy.<\/p>\n
In remarks aired by French television, Sarkozy also cited that in 2001 the French parliament had recognized the Armenian Genocide.<\/p>\n
\u201cTen years ago France adopted a law recognizing the Armenian genocide, the massacre of 1.5 million Armenians,\u201d he said. \u201cNow the question for the parliament was to know whether the recognition of this genocide should mean that those disputing it can be held accountable.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is what was decided by the National Assembly. You see, France has principles.\u201d<\/p>\n
Earlier on Friday, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan accused France of committing genocide in its former colony Algeria and launched a personal attack on Sarkozy. \u201cIn Algeria from 1945, an estimated 15 percent of the population was massacred by the French. This is a genocide,\u201d Erdogan said on live television, according to Reuters.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf the French President Mr. Sarkozy doesn\u2019t know about this genocide he should go and ask his father, Paul Sarkozy. His father served in the French Legion in Algeria in the 1940s. I am sure he would have lots to tell his son about the French massacres in Algeria,\u201d the Turkish premier said.<\/p>\n
AFP reported that France\u2019s Foreign Minister Alain Juppe called on Turkey not to \u201coverreact\u201d to a bill that he insisted was a parliamentary initiative, and not a project of Sarkozy\u2019s government.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have been accused of genocide! How could we not overreact?\u201d the Turkish ambassador to France, Tahsin Burcuoglu, said before taking a flight home. \u201cTurkey will never recognize this story of an Armenian genocide.\u201d<\/p>\n
Armenia Thanks France<\/p>\n
Armenia on Friday again thanked France for the Genocide bill adopted by the parliament. In a letter to his French counterpart Nicolas Sarkozy, President Serzh Sarkisian said the French National Assembly demonstrated France\u2019s devotion to \u201cuniversal human values\u201d when it approved a corresponding bill on Thursday.<\/p>\n
According to the presidential press office, Sarkisian said the vote also testifies to Sarkozy\u2019s personal commitment to strengthening \u201cArmenian-French friendship,\u201d eliminating \u201cdivision lines\u201d and \u201creconciling peoples\u201d in the region.<\/p>\n
Armenian Foreign Minister Edward Nalbandian also thanked France in a statement issued immediately after the National Assembly in Paris voted to pass the bill criminalizing the denial of the Armenian and other genocides.<\/p>\n
via Sarkozy: Turkey Cannot Teach France Any \u201cLessons\u201d | Massis Post Armenian News.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Armenia Thanks France for Genocide Bill PARIS \u2014 France\u2019s President Nicolas Sarkozy dismissed on Friday Turkey\u2019s furious reaction to the passage of a French bill criminalizing the denial of the Armenian Genocide, saying that Ankara cannot teach his country any \u201clessons.\u201d \u201cI respect the views of our Turkish friends \u2014 it\u2019s a great country, a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":83,"featured_media":774847,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,48],"tags":[2317,7652,136],"class_list":["post-48232","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-armenian-question","category-france","tag-genocide-resolution","tag-denial-of-armenian-genocide","tag-sarkozy"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48232","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/83"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=48232"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48232\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/774847"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=48232"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=48232"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=48232"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}