Paris - One of the most troublesome things about democracies is that they often tell the truth, Lara Marlowe reports. So when the French National Assembly voted a law two weeks ago saying "France publicly recognises the Armenian genocide of 1915," the Turkish government was enraged.
This week, Ankara retaliated by excluding the Thomson CSF company from bidding for a £107 million naval aircraft electronic surveillance deal. Also in retaliation, the French company Cegelec has been disqualified from building the Izmir underground system.
But it is the events of April 1915 that modern-day Turks deny. Up to 1.5 million Armenians were killed in the first genocide of this century, and eyewitness accounts and Ottoman documents show that the rapes, massacres and mass deportations to Syria were planned. To this day, the genocide is a taboo subject in Turkey. The government admits that there were massacres - they estimate the victims at 300,000 - but claims these were "accidents" that occurred when the Armenians were moved to prevent them aiding advancing Russian forces.