French lawmakers approved a bill on Thursday that would make it a crime to deny that mass killings of Armenians in Turkey during World War I was genocide, a move described by Turkey as a "great disappointment in our country."
Ankara quickly said the vote would harm bilateral relations, but the bill could face an impossible struggle to become law -- or even make it to the upper house of parliament for further discussion.
The majority of the 557 lawmakers who sit in France's National Assembly, the lower house of parliament, did not take part in the vote. The bill passed 106-19.
PHOTO: AFP
Turkey lashed out at the French for passing the bill, with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan calling the legislation a "great shame and black stain for freedom of expression."
"A historical mistake has been committed," Erdogan said in a written statement that also cautioned against over-reaction.
Turkey's Foreign Ministry said ties with France "have been dealt a heavy blow."
French Trade Minister Christine Lagarde also said the issue could jeopardize, ties, telling Dow Jones Newswires that the bill's approval "puts at stake what is an important economic relationship for us."
French President Jacques Chirac's administration opposed the bill, although it did not use its majority in the lower house to vote it down. Instead, most ruling party lawmakers did not vote on the text that was brought by the opposition Socialist Party.
But Chirac's government is thought unlikely to forward the bill for passage by the Senate, the upper house.
Chirac didn't comment on the vote on Thursday, although he has said that the bill "is more of a polemic than legal reality."
His former spokeswoman Catherine Colonna, now France's minister for European affairs, told parliament on Thursday that the government did not look favorably on the bill.
"It is not for the law to write history," she said before the vote.
The Armenian genocide issue has become intertwined with ongoing debate in France and across Europe about whether to admit mostly Muslim Turkey into the EU. France is home to hundreds of thousands of people whose families came from Armenia.
Chirac has said that he favors Turkey's bid to join the EU. But on a visit to Armenia last month, he also urged Turkey to recognize "the genocide of Armenians" in order to join the EU.
"Each country grows by acknowledging its dramas and errors of the past," Chirac said.
In Brussels, the EU's executive Commission said on Thursday that the bill, if ever it became law, would hamper reconciliation between Turkey and Armenia.
Turkey vowed to use "all of our efforts and actions at every level" to prevent the bill from becoming law.
France has already recognized the killings of up to 1.5 million Armenians from 1915 to 1919 as genocide; under Thursday's bill, those who contest that it was genocide would risk up to a year in prison and fines of up to 45,000 euros (US$56,000).
A 1990 French law makes it a crime to deny the Holocaust.
Armenia accuses Turkey of massacring Armenians during World War I, when Armenia was ruled by the Ottoman Empire. Turkey says Armenians were killed in civil unrest during the collapse of the empire.
Supporters of Turkey abruptly left the French parliament building after the vote without speaking to reporters. Outside, a few dozen protesters of Armenian descent celebrated, singing the French the Marseillaise, -- the French national anthem -- when the bill passed.
"The memory of the victims is finally totally respected," said Alexis Govciyan, head of a group of Armenian organizations in France. "The dignity of all their descendants and all of our compatriots will now be taken into account in a republican way, with the rules and values that govern our country."
Armenians in other countries also cheered the bill.
"They have recognized it," said Caroline Jansezian, owner of an Armenian gift shop in the Old City of Jerusalem. "It's come the time that somebody cares about it."
In Turkey, the French vote dominated newspapers, with some reporting that thousands of Turks have promised to go to France and deny genocide in hopes of getting arrested. Two TV networks in Turkey broadcast the parliamentary floor debate live.
Turkey's chief negotiator in EU membership talks said on Thursday that the French bill flew in the face of freedom of expression.
"This is violating one of the core principles of the European Union, which is freedom of expression," chief negotiator Ali Babacan said.
CONFRONTATION: The water cannon attack was the second this month on the Philippine supply boat ‘Unaizah May 4,’ after an incident on March 5 The China Coast Guard yesterday morning blocked a Philippine supply vessel and damaged it with water cannons near a reef off the Southeast Asian country, the Philippines said. The Philippine military released video of what it said was a nearly hour-long attack off the Second Thomas Shoal (Renai Shoal, 仁愛暗沙) in the contested South China Sea, where Chinese ships have unleashed water cannons and collided with Philippine vessels in similar standoffs in the past few months. The China Coast Guard and other vessels “once again harassed, blocked, deployed water cannons, and executed dangerous maneuvers” against a routine rotation and resupply mission to
GLOBAL COMBAT AIR PROGRAM: The potential purchasers would be limited to the 15 nations with which Tokyo has signed defense partnership and equipment transfer deals Japan’s Cabinet yesterday approved a plan to sell future next-generation fighter jets that it is developing with the UK and Italy to other nations, in the latest move away from the country’s post-World War II pacifist principles. The contentious decision to allow international arms sales is expected to help secure Japan’s role in the joint fighter jet project, and is part of a move to build up the Japanese arms industry and bolster its role in global security. The Cabinet also endorsed a revision to Japan’s arms equipment and technology transfer guidelines to allow coproduced lethal weapons to be sold to nations
Thousands of devotees, some in a state of trance, gathered at a Buddhist temple on the outskirts of Bangkok renowned for sacred tattoos known as Sak Yant, paying their respects to a revered monk who mastered the practice and seeking purification. The gathering at Wat Bang Phra Buddhist temple is part of a Thai Wai Khru ritual in which devotees pay homage to Luang Phor Pern, the temple’s formal abbot, who died in 2002. He had a reputation for refining and popularizing the temple’s Sak Yant tattoo style. The idea that tattoos confer magical powers has existed in many parts of Asia
ON ALERT: A Russian cruise missile crossed into Polish airspace for about 40 seconds, the Polish military said, adding that it is constantly monitoring the war to protect its airspace Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv, and the western region of Lviv early yesterday came under a “massive” Russian air attack, officials said, while a Russian cruise missile breached Polish airspace, the Polish military said. Russia and Ukraine have been engaged in a series of deadly aerial attacks, with yesterday’s strikes coming a day after the Russian military said it had seized the Ukrainian village of Ivanivske, west of Bakhmut. A militant attack on a Moscow concert hall on Friday that killed at least 133 people also became a new flash point between the two archrivals. “Explosions in the capital. Air defense is working. Do not