Sarkozy’s dad disputes PM over Algerian past

ISTANBUL

Kılıçdaroğlu (R), the main opposition leader, visits PM Erdoğan at his ruling party’s HQ in Ankara. Both opposition and government slam Paris for its ‘genocide’ bill. AA photo

Turkey’s premier engaged in an unusual war of words with the French president and his father on Dec. 23 over the latter’s personal history in France’s colonial past after Paris endorsed a bill criminalizing the denial of the 1915 events as genocide.

“[French President Nicolas] Sarkozy should ask about France’s genocide in Algeria in 1945 to his father, Pal Sarkozy, who was a legionnaire in the French army at the time; I have no doubt that his father has some stories to tell to his son,” Erdoğan said. Pal Sarkozy, however, said he had never been to Algeria. “I never went beyond Marseille.” (Family dragged into bill debate)

President Sarkozy, meanwhile, called on Turkey to respect his Parliament’s decision to pass the bill.
“I respect the views of our Turkish friends [but] they must respect ours,” the French leader said. (Turkey must respect our views: Sarkozy)

“If France continues to insist on the bill, Turkey could launch new economic sanctions,” Deputy Prime Minister Ali Babacan said. (Deputy PM silent on pressure on lenders)

Turkey’s foreign minister also likened France’s stance to the Mideast’s “dictatorships.” (Turkey to revise its diaspora concept: FM)