French MPs back Armenia genocide bill

PARIS - France's lower house of parliament has approved a bill making it a crime to deny Armenians suffered genocide at the hands of Ottoman Turks, provoking anger in Turkey and raising fresh doubts about its EU ambitions.

Ankara said the vote would damage ties between the two NATO allies and French firms operating in Turkey feared they would suffer an immediate backlash.

"This will be an unforgettable shame on France. France can never describe itself as a country of freedoms again," said Turkish Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul.

Turkey denies accusations some 1.5 million Armenians were massacred during the disintegration of the Ottoman Empire in World War One, arguing that Armenian deaths were a part of general partisan fighting in which both sides suffered.

The French government distanced itself from Thursday's bill, calling it "unnecessary and untimely", and indicated that it might never become law as it still needs to be ratified by both the upper house Senate and French president.

But Turkish officials, fearing a nationalist backlash that could put the pro-European Ankara government on the defensive, said the damage had already been done.

The legislation calls for a one-year prison term and 45,000 euro ($85,800) fine for anyone denying the 1915 genocide - the same sanction as for denying the Nazi genocide of Jews.

"Does a genocide committed in World War One have less value than a genocide committed in World War Two? Obviously not," Philippe Pomezec, a parliamentarian with the ruling Union for a Popular Movement (UMP), said during the debate.

Armenian Foreign Minister Vardan Oskanyan hailed the vote as a "natural continuation of France's principled and consistent defence of human and historic rights and values".

Hostage to politics

However, analysts saw the move more as a play for Armenian diaspora votes in next year's presidential election and said it highlighted how easily Turkey's EU candidacy can become a hostage to domestic politics in EU member states.

"It is the intention of those French politicians who backed this bill to antagonise Turkey, to push it to the limit and force it to throw in the towel," said Cengiz Candar, an EU expert at Istanbul's Bahcesehir University.

Some 60 protesters carried a black wreath down Istanbul's main commercial street on Thursday and laid it in front of the French consulate.

Most French people oppose Turkey joining the 25-nation bloc and fear over its potential membership was one of the reasons why France voted last year to reject the EU constitution.

Anti-Turkish feeling was palpable as lawmakers left parliament on Thursday. Influential UMP politician Patrick Devedjian, himself of Armenian descent, said Muslim Turkey was not a democratic country and did not deserve EU membership.

"It is like they are asking to enter a club but have already smashed its windows," he told Reuters television.

The European Commission warned France that its bill could hinder efforts to end decades of dispute over the killings and noted that criteria for talks on Turkey's possible EU entry did not include recognition of the Armenian killings as genocide.

An hour after the vote, Turkey's best-known novelist, Orhan Pamuk, won the Nobel prize for Literature.

Pamuk recently went on trial for insulting "Turkishness" after telling a Swiss newspaper nobody in Turkey dared mention the Armenian massacres. The court eventually dropped charges.

French businesses fear trade will suffer because of the row, with French exports to Turkey worth 4.66 billion euros in 2005.

"Time will show. But I cannot say it will not have any consequences," Turkish Economics Minister Ali Babacan told reporters in Brussels.

- REUTERS