Turkey's army-dominated National Security Council added its voice Monday to criticism of a French bill recognizing the killings of Armenians under the Ottoman Empire as genocide, and warned that it would seriously strain bilateral ties.
The Council "viewed with deep regret" the bill passed last Thursday by the French parliament, it said in a written statement after its monthly meeting. "It has been noted that the law will seriously harm Turkish-French ties and adversely affect regional stability and security," it said, without elaborating.
The National Security Council, which brings together the top brass of the army and the civilian leadership, is a policy-setting body that makes high-priority recommendations to the government.
The French bill has already unleashed a wave of anger in Turkey, where protestors have gathered daily in front of French missions.
Turkey's state-run TRT channel joined in the protests on Monday and announced that it would unilaterally annul a cooperation protocol with Canal France International (CFI) in retaliation to the genocide bill.
"The TRT has decided to cancel as of April 17, 2001 the protocol with the CFI," under which both stations exchanged television programs, it said in a written statement. The protocol was inked in 1991 and renewed in 1998, it added.
Turkish Prime Minister Bulent Ecevit said at the weekend that Ankara would announce a list of sanctions against France within days. "We are preparing a plan which will not cause us too much harm," he said.
Even though Turkish leaders have been reticent on the possible measures, Foreign Minister Ismail Cem hinted last week that public tenders and defense contracts were generally affected by such sanctions — an apparent hint that French firms might be excluded from defense tenders.
Dozens of Turkish trade and industry bodies, unions, and professional associations have called for a boycott of French goods.
France is among Turkey's main economic partners, with bilateral trade in 1999 standing at some $4.5 billion (€4.8 billion).
Ankara categorically rejects claims of genocide, saying that some 300,000 Armenians and thousands of Turks were killed in what was internal fighting in the dissolution years of the Ottoman Empire. Armenians, however, maintain that 1.5 million people died in orchestrated massacres between 1915 and 1917.
Turkey refuses to establish diplomatic ties with its eastern neighbor Armenia until Yerevan ends its international campaign for the recognition of genocide claims, and resolves the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict with Azerbaijan, a close Turkish ally. — (AFP, Ankara)
© Agence France Presse 2001
© 2001 Mena Report (www.menareport.com)
