A aw making it illegal to deny the mass killing of Armenians by Ottoman Turks a century ago will come into effect within the next fortnight, French president Nicolas Sarkozy's office said today.
Lawmakers in the upper house of parliament voted in favour of the draft bill outlawing genocide yesterday, after heated debate, prompting angry retaliation from Turkey which threatened to cut diplomatic ties between the two countries.
Mr Sarkozy now has to ratify the law before it can come into force. "The President of the Republic will promulgate the law within the usual timeframe, that is two weeks," a source at the presidential office said.
In a letter sent to Turkey's prime minister Tayyip Erdogan on January 18th and made public today, Mr Sarkozy said the law did not target a particular state, and urged Ankara to take into account its "common interests" with France.
Mr Erdogan attacked the French parliament today for passing a "discriminatory and racist" bill.
With passions running high in Turkey, one newspaper denounced the French president as "Satan Sarkozy" and some politicians have already suggested dredging up France's own colonial history.
However, Mr Erdogan appeared keen to avoid an immediate rupture with Paris, saying there was still hope that Nato ally France "would correct its mistake" and that any retaliatory measures would be held back, depending on French actions.
"We will not allow anyone to gain political benefit at the expense of Turkey; the bill which was passed in France is clearly discriminatory, racist," Mr Erdogan said. "We will adopt a rational and dignified stance, we will implement our measures step by step. Right now we are still in a period of patience," he told parliamentary deputies of his AK Party
Armenia, backed by many historians and parliaments, says about 1.5 million Christian Armenians were killed in what is now eastern Turkey during World War One in a deliberate policy of genocide ordered by the Ottoman government.
The Ottoman empire was dissolved after the end of the war, but Turkish governments and most Turks feel the charge of genocide is an insult to their nation. Ankara argues there was heavy loss of life on both sides during fighting in the area.
Reuters
