'Genocide' bill 'null and void for us': Erdoğan
Hurriyet.com.tr
Prime Minister Erdoğan spoke during his party's weekly group meeting. AP photo
Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said today that Turkey regarded the French Senate's Jan. 23 approval of a bill criminalizing the denial of Armenian genocide claims as “null and void.”Erdoğan said Turkey had previously warned France against the “mistake” of passing the bill and added that the government hoped France would make amends for the mistake.
The Turkish prime minister called on "right-minded" members of the French Parliament and French intellectuals to oppose the bill and said the approval of the law was outright racism and destroyed free speech.
It is up to citizens of France to judge French President Nicolas Sarkozy and his associates, Erdoğan said.
"Those who fall silent against such measures [such as the approval of this law] will be turning a deaf ear to the footsteps of approaching fascism in Europe," Erdoğan said.
Erdoğan said the Turkish government was waiting patiently for the legal process in France to run its course before it would share its plan of action against the law with the public.
