Turkey’s Parliament backed on Tuesday a declaration condemning the French National Assembly’s approval of a draft Bill that would make it a crime to deny Armenians suffered genocide by Ottoman Turks in 1915.
But the government stopped short of taking measures against French interests and companies, aware this could harm Turkey’s economy more than France’s.
Diplomats say the genocide Bill, approved by the lower house last Thursday, is unlikely to become law due to resistance from the upper chamber, the Senate and President Jacques Chirac.
Turkish lawmakers said much damage had already been done.
”Naturally, approval of the draft by the French Parliament will inflict irreparable damage on political, economic and military relations between Turkey and France,” said the declaration which had the backing of all political parties.
It said Armenia would pay a ”heavy price” for using lobbies in France and in other countries against Turkey, although it did not say what that might entail.
Turkey has no diplomatic relations with Armenia due to the tiny ex-Soviet republic’s occupation of territory belonging to Ankara’s Turkic-speaking ally Azerbaijan.
France is home to Europe’s largest Armenian diaspora.
Ankara denies Armenians’ claims they suffered a systematic genocide in Turkey during World War I, saying both Christian Armenians and Muslim Turks died in large numbers in a partisan conflict that accompanied the breakup of the Ottoman Empire.
In Tuesday’s debate in the Turkish Parliament, Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul said the ”baseless” Armenian claims were nothing more than political propaganda.
”We hope this bill stops halfway and that the French come to their senses,” Gul said.
Gul said the French Bill violated the principle of free speech, a key requirement of the European Union, which Turkey hopes to join. He said Ankara would fight the Bill in international courts if it ever became law in France. – Reuters