Turkish envoy to return back to Paris.

Turkey 4 January, 2012 9:49

Today`s ZAMAN - Turkey plans to send its ambassador back to France, who was recalled to Ankara for consultations in the wake of the French Parliament’s approval of a bill seeking to penalize denial of the alleged Armenian genocide, back to Paris to step up efforts to prevent the approval of the bill by the Senate, Turkish media reported on Tuesday.

Reports citing Turkish diplomatic sources say Turkey’s move to recall its ambassador, Tahsin Burcuoğlu, does not mean it is downgrading diplomatic ties with Paris as he was recalled simply for consultations. Since the bill has not yet been approved by the senate, Turkey will make the utmost effort to prevent approval of the bill, the same sources said.

The lower house of the French Parliament voted last month in favor of a controversial bill penalizing those who deny that the 1915 killing of Armenians by Ottoman Turks was genocide, ignoring strong Turkish opposition against the measure. The bill sets a punishment of up to a year in prison and a fine of 45,000 euros ($59,000) for those who deny or “outrageously minimize” the alleged genocide of Armenians in eastern Anatolia during the final years of the Ottoman Empire, putting such an action on par with denial of the Holocaust.

The measure now needs to be passed in the Senate, the upper house of the French Parliament, before it comes into effect. It is up to the French government to either put the bill on the Senate’s agenda or not. If the Senate, which will go into recess on Feb. 22 for April’s presidential elections, does not discuss the bill until that date, the fate of the bill will be dependent of the new government to be formed after June’s general elections.

The disputed genocide of 1915 has been a matter of heated discussion between Turks and Armenians, as Armenians claim that Ottoman Turks carried out a systematic mass murder of Armenians with the aim of eradicating them in the country. Turks say Armenians were deported when they took up arms against the state at a time of chaos as the Ottoman Empire crumbled and modern-day Turkey’s founders fought a political and armed war against foreign forces trying to take over the country. Turkey’s asserts that most of the casualties occurred as deported Armenians were en route to various destinations due to the extreme circumstances, but Armenians allege that the deaths were intentional.