Erdogan to declare Turkey’s position on Genocide bill Dec 22

PanARMENIAN.Net - Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Turkey will declare its position on the decision of the French National Assembly on the bill criminalizing denial of the Armenian Genocide, according to the state-run Anatolian news agency.

Earlier, Erdogan said his country would retaliate by all diplomatic means if the French parliament approved the bill.

"I would like to reaffirm that we will resort to all diplomatic means to stand against such unjust, biased, populist and unlawful attempts," Erdogan said.

Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu threatened to introduce a bill on “the genocide committed by France in Algeria, where 45000 local residents died in 1945.” PACE President Mevlut Cavusoglu laid “the responsibility of possible worsening of relations between Paris and Ankara on Nicolas Sarkozy.”

Meanwhile, many French politicians stand for adoption of the bill. “The Armenian Genocide is a fact of history and a proposed French law making it illegal to deny this has nothing to do with forthcoming elections,” France's Minister for Europe Jean Leonetti has said.