CHP sends ‘bill’ letter to French Socialists

ANKARA - Hürriyet Daily News

Kılıçdaroğlu sent a letter to Hollande, head of the French Socialist Party.

Turkey’s main opposition party has urged the French Socialist Party not to back the law penalizing the denial of Armenian claims of genocide which the Senate will debate Jan. 23.

“If the French Parliament insists on voting anti-Turkish and unconstitutional laws, it would not only seriously affect the image of France, but also that of the European Union, which would be perceived as unfair and hostile,” Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu, leader of the Republican People’s Party (CHP), said in a letter to François Hollande, head of the Socialist Party who is in competition with Nicolas Sarkozy in the presidential elections.

Kılıçdaroğlu also sent letters to Jean-Pierre Bel, Socialist head of the French Senate, and Martine Aubry, first secretary of the French Socialist Party.

Hollande’s position ahead of Sarkozy in public opinion polls causes satisfaction and at the same time concerns, as the Socialist Party did not stand against the controversial bill, Kılıçdaroğlu said. The proposed law violated the French constitutional articles assuring freedom of expression, he added.

“You will understand without difficulty that the adoption of the law proposal of Boyer will cause a crisis [between two countries] unprecedented since the 1921 Ankara Agreement,” he said.

Kılıçdaroğlu asked Hollande to hear the voice of reason and not back the bill in the Senate. The move would restore Turkish-French friendship at the hands of Hollande, he added.