Together but opposed? French President Nicolas Sarkozy with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan
| Never great friends, Sarkozy and Erdogan now divided by Armenian genocide
On 23 January, the French Senate approved a law criminalising the denial of genocide committed by Turkey over Armenians from 1915 to 1916, making it punishable by as much as a year's imprisonment and a €45,000 fine. Turkey rejected it as politicisation of history and a “racist” attack on freedom of speech.
The bill had already sparked discontent in Turkey when it was first adopted by the lower house of the French parliament in December 2011. Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu lobbied against the legislation by summoning executives of Credit Agricole SA and Groupama SA, but with no result.
Turkey threatened a new round of sanctions and a further deterioration in relations. Davutoglu “strongly condemned this decision” in an emailed statement and pledged to fight it on “every platform”. He accused France of acting on a sensitive issue without comprehending “the essence of the matter”, or understanding Turkey and the Turkish people.
Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan addressed the parliament on 24 January with constraint and patience. He announced that Turkey would wait to see if the law is ratified by French President Nicolas Sarkozy before taking further steps.
After the December vote, Turkey acted immediately and introduced sanctions to France and started an aggressive (yet somewhat counterproductive) campaign of accusations of various 'genocides' committed by French colonising forces, especially in Africa.
This moderated approach, combined with French Foreign Minister Juppé's statement that the vote was “inopportune” may signify there are some indications that the bill might not be immediately ratified by President Sarkozy, though he is expected to sign it into law by the end of February.
Erdogan did accuse France of pursuing “a kind of racism” and called the bill a discrimination, and attack on the freedom of expression. Erdogan reiterated that history should not be decided upon by politicians in parliaments and that the bill is contrary to European and French values alike.
Turkey has already decided to freeze all political and military actions with France and the prime minister accused the French President Nicolas Sarkozy and his centre-right UMP party of using this issue to rally public support before all-important presidential elections in May.
“It’s incomprehensible for Sarkozy to push a verdict on a matter historians should decide upon, just for his own political purposes,” Erdogan said on 23 January, just before the vote in the French Senate.
Sarkozy is well known for his lasting opposition to Turkey’s membership in the EU. French Foreign Minister Alain Juppé urged Turkey to remain calm following the vote. “Turkey and France need each other to work together on many issues,” he said.
Some 20 states including Greece, Canada and Russia recognise the ethnic cleansing of Armenians as genocide. Armenians claim that 1.5 million ethnic Armenians were systemically killed in couple of years, while Turkey, on its part maintains that it was an armed conflict with Armenian groups which joined the invading Russian army.
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