TURKEY HIGHLY CRITICAL ON APPROVAL OF ARMENIAN GENOCIDE RESOLUTION BY FRENCH SENATE

09.11.2000, MEDIAMAX, YEREVAN. Ankara sharply reacts on yesterday’s decision of the French Senate to approve the Armenian Genocide of 1915 in Ottoman Turkey.
A special statement by the Foreign Ministry of Turkey reads that Ankara
“rejects and finds totally unacceptable this “most unfortunate” and “wrong decision.”
The statement says that “this decision of the French Senate is a distortion of history and is based on untruths and a throwing of mud on a nation.” It says that this decision of the French Senate “hurts the French-Turkish relations.”
The statement also reads that “the Turkish nation has never taken part in any genocide, a very serious crime, in its history.”
On November 8, the French Senate voted with 164 “for” and 40 “against” for passing the Resolution on recognition of the Armenian Genocide in 1915. Following Senate passage, the resolution must again be considered by the French Assembly and, upon approval, will go to President Jacques Chirac for signature.
On May of 1998 the Lower House of France passed the Resolution on recognition of the Armenian Genocide, however, the issue was not put on the agenda of the Senate because of the pressure exerted by the executive powers of the state. –0–