Turkey plans to take counter measures against France’s passing of the bill on criminalization of denial of the Armenian Genocide, Turkish President Abdullah Gul said, TRT reports.
Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan announced preparations of new sanctions against France.
There were 127 votes for the bill and 86 against in the French Senate (upper chamber).
The French National Assembly (lower chamber) passed the bill on December 22. 45 out of 577 MPs voted, with 38 for the bill and 7 against. The bill will come into force in 15 days, signed by French President Nicolas Sarkozy.
Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan filed a letter to his French counterpart Nikolas Sarkozy, thanking him for passing the bill.
Andrey Areshev, Deputy Director General of the Fund for Strategic Culture, said that there may be temporary tensions between the two states, but not for long. Turkey is a member of NATO and is involved in other formats of the West. Turkey’s reaction resembles the one in 2001 when France recognized the genocide and 2006 when the lower chamber initiated talks on the bill. The emotional heat will sooner or later end, the expert says.
Discussions of sore issues of Turkish history are a common topic. For example, discussions of the Dersim events in the 1930s show maturity. Practice shows that history will undergo further discussions in the future. Especially when the bill is based on the events during the rule of Mustafa Kemal Ataturk.
The Russian political analyst believes that Turkey and France will always have close ties. They will improve soon, Areshev concludes.
Togrul Ismail, assistant professor of the Subdepartment for International Relations of the University of Economy and Technologies TOBB, told Vestnik Kavkaza that comparison of the situation to the reaction in 2001 is wrong because there were hopes for the Senate to ban the bill.
Ismail said that all Turkish political forces criticized the bill for its political nature, making the Turkish-Armenian problem more painful. Such steps have a bad effect on young people. Another problem is that France proved its inefficiency as a member of the OSCE Minsk Group. France should leave the group, the expert believes, because it means that Paris takes sides.
Togrul Ismail reckons that Turkish growing influence in the region, Middle East, North Africa bothers France. The counter measures against France have not been abandoned. Ankara is waiting for Sarkozy and the Constitutional Court to make decisions.
Sarkozy is expected to sign the document in two weeks. He sent a letter to Turkish Prime Minister Erdogan, assuring that the bill was not meant against Turkey.
