Turkey pessimist on halt of ‘genocide’ bill

ANKARA - Anatolia News Agency

Patrick Ollier, Parliamentary relations minister, speaks during the French Senate vote session for a bill criminalizing the denial of the ‘genocide.’ AFP photo

The head of Parliament’s Foreign Affairs Commission voiced pessimism over the prospect of a court action by French lawmakers to seek the abolition of the genocide denial law.

Ankara seeks 60 French senators to appeal to the Constitutional Council to halt the law adopted by the French Senate on Jan. 23 that criminalizes denial of incidents in World War I as Armenian “genocide.” “I don’t think there could be 60 people [to make the application] in the current political climate,” Volkan Bozkır, head of the Foreign Affairs Commission, told reporters yesterday, according to Anatolia news agency. “I hope I will be wrong and we will be able to see 60 persons who believe in the friendship of Turkey and France and respect the values the West was built on.” Foreign Minister Davutoğlu also criticized Nicolas Sarkozy.

The French president was giving a message “not only to Armenian voters, but also to ultra-rightists who have a phobia of Islam,” Davutoğlu said, adding, “such maneuvers aiming at the ultra-right voter, radical nationalists and Islamophobic circles are a very dangerous game, and they threaten European culture.”

Turkey’s sanctions against France will not include any measures against French-language schools in the country, Education Minister Ömer Dinçer said. Meanwhile, Turkish First Lady Hayrünnisa Gül did not invite France’s Ambassador to Turkey Laurent Bili’s wife to a lunch organized in the Presidency today as a reaction.