Ankara will announce sanctions against Paris, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said yesterday on the eve of a debate in the French parliament on a law criminalising the denial of the Armenian genocide by Turkish forces.
“Tomorrow I will probably announce what we will do at the first stage and we will announce what kind of sanctions we will have at the second and third stages,” Mr Erdogan said late yesterday, according to Anatolia news agency.
He said the move by French President Nicolas Sarkozy was aimed at electoral gains and would “harm Franco-Turkish relations”.
France’s estimated 400,000-strong ethnic Armenian population is seen as an important element in Mr Sarkozy’s support base as he prepares for a tough re-election battle in April next year.
The French parliament is today expected to approve the Bill, which would see anyone in France who publicly denies the 1915 genocide face a year in jail and a fine of €45,000.
Armenians say up to 1.5 million of their forebears were killed during World War I by the forces of Turkey’s former Ottoman Empire, a figure Ankara disputes.
The planned French legislation has united Turkey’s ruling and opposition parties which in a joint declaration denounced it as a “grave, unacceptable and historic mistake”.
“We strongly condemn the proposal which denigrates Turkish history,” the lawmakers said, urging France to consider its own past, including its involvement in bloodshed in Algeria and Rwanda. Around 100 people demonstrated yesterday in front of the French embassy in the Turkish capital, chanting slogans.
The protesters unfurled banners reading, “Genocide master imperialist France”, “What were you doing in Algeria?”, “What were you doing in Rwanda?” and “Liar Sarkozy”.
The group later dispersed without incident.
Turkey’s EU Affairs Minister Egemen Bagis said the legislation was against “EU principles, the spirit of the French Revolution and reason.”
Turkish media are highly critical of the genocide bill initiated by a lawmaker from the ruling party of President Nicolas Sarkozy.
“Ugly Monsieur,” ran the headline in the opposition newspaper Sozcu, in reference to Mr Sarkozy.
“Sarkozy has nothing to lose,” Semih Idiz wrote in his column in Milliyet daily.
“If winning the votes of French citizens of Armenian origin is eventually going to facilitate his re-election as President, he will end up a winner,” said Idiz.
Turkey and France have enjoyed close ties since Ottoman Empire times, coupled with strong economic links, but relations took a downturn after Mr Sarkozy became President in 2007 and raised vocal objections to Turkey’s EU accession.
A delegation of Turkish lawmakers and businessmen lobbied in France this week in an attempt to head off the genocide Bill.