PARIS — Ties between France and Turkey, strategic allies and trading partners, abruptly unraveled Thursday after French legislators passed a bill making it a crime to deny that the mass killings of Armenians by Ottoman Turks nearly a century ago constitute genocide.
The bill strikes at the heart of national honor in Turkey, which denies the genocide label and insists the 1915 massacres occurred during civil unrest as the Ottoman Empire collapsed, with losses on both sides. But it’s seen as a matter of principle for some French politicians, and a matter of long-overdue justice for the half a million people in France of Armenian descent, many of whom had relatives among the 1.5 million Armenians killed.
( Burhan Ozbilici / Associated Press ) - Members of a pro-government union shout slogans against France and French President Nicolas Sarkozy outside the French Embassy in Ankara, Turkey, Wednesday, Dec. 21, 2011. Union members protest against France, a day before the lower house of the French Parliament debate a proposal that would punish anyone denying that the killings of Armenians by Ottoman Turks more than 90 years ago were a genocide.
.The French bill still needs Senate approval, but after it passed the lower house, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan halted bilateral political and economic contacts, suspended military cooperation and ordered his country’s ambassador home for consultations. Turkey argues France is trampling freedom of expression and that French President Nicolas Sarkozy is on a vote-getting mission before April presidential elections.
France formally recognized the 1915 killings as genocide in 2001, but provided no penalty for anyone refuting that. The bill passed Thursday 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.
Turkey cuts ties with France after lawmakers pass bill on Armenian genocide - The Washington Post
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