TURKISH PRESIDENT ASKS CHIRAC TO OVERTURN THE ARMENIAN GENOCIDE BILL

20.01.2001, MEDIAMAX, YEREVAN. Turkish President Ahmet Necdet Sezer on Friday appealed to his French opposite number, Jacques Chirac, to use his influence to overturn a parliamentary vote that described massacres of Armenians in Turkey over 80 years ago as genocide, AFP reports.
“This law is certainly going to have very bad repercussions on long-standing Turkish-French relations,” Turkish presidential spokesman Tacan Ildem told reporters.
The parliamentary vote could be annulled if only France’s Constitutional Council were to declare it unconstitutional.
Observers said such a move was unlikely, as France will be holding local elections in March, and politicians are keen to woo the country’s half-million strong ethnic Armenian community, AFP reports. -0–