Erdogan warns Sarkozy against adopting Armenian Genocide billDecember 16, 2011 - 16:00 AMT PanARMENIAN.Net - Turkey warned France on Friday, Dec 16 their political and economic relations would suffer grave consequences if the French parliament passed a draft law making it illegal to deny the Armenian Genocide. French President Nicolas Sarkozy, a vocal critic of Turkey's long-standing, but slow-moving bid to join the European Union, told Turkey in October that unless it recognized the 1915 Armenian Genocide, France would consider making denial a crime. The draft law, put forward by a deputy from Sarkozy's party, is due to go before parliament next week and proposes a one-year prison sentence and 45,000 euro fine for denying the Genocide. "I want to state clearly that such steps will have grave consequences for future relations between Turkey and France in political, economic, cultural and all areas and the responsibility will rest with those behind this initiative," Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan wrote in a letter to Sarkozy. "Turkish-French relations should not be held captive by the demands of third parties," Erdogan said. "This is a sensitive, serious subject." Erdogan said common sense should come before political calculations, Reuters reported. Top stories Authorities said a total of 192 Azerbaijani troops were killed and 511 were wounded during Azerbaijan’s offensive. In 2023, the Azerbaijani government will increase the country’s defense budget by more than 1.1 billion manats ($650 million). The bill, published on Monday, is designed to "eliminate the shortcomings of an unreasonably broad interpretation of the key concept of "compatriot". The earthquake caused a temporary blackout, damaged many buildings and closed a number of rural roads. Partner news | Russia warns Armenia against “falling into West’s trap” Zakharova maintained, however, that anything that will benefit the people of Armenia can only be welcomed. CSTO: Armenia has not participated in secretariat’s work recently Recently Armenia has not participated in the work of the secretariat of the CSTO, Imangali Tasmagambetov said. Meeting with U.S., EU not against third parties, says Armenia The meeting scheduled for April 5 is dedicated to strengthening of the Armenia-EU-US cooperation, Yerevan added. Ucom launches network modernization efforts in few regions of Armenia In particular, on March 28, the legacy Mobile Switching Subsystem will be replaced with a new one. |