Turkish Businessman Says Armenian Bill ‘French Ploy’

By Ercan Baysal, Ankara

Thursday, October 12, 2006

zaman.com

The French parliament will negotiate a bill that would penalize denial of the so-called Armenian genocide on Thursday.

Representatives of the Turkish business world are lobbying in Paris to show their increasing displeasure toward the bill. Kaan Soyak, the Turkish-Armenian co-chair of the Council on Development of Economic Ties said, “The Armenian genocide is just a cover; France’s actual concern is to prevent Turkey’s accession to the European Union.”

Soyak said this discussion over the so-called Armenian genocide should end as soon as possible and added it was only the Justice and Development Party (AKP) government that could manage to accomplish this.

Soyak said France used the Armenian issue as a trump against Turkey and added he was always prevented whenever he demanded help from French ambassadors to fix the relationship with Armenia.

Soyak, who was invited by many French NGOs to Paris last week, said that these NGOs wanted him to go to Paris and talk about relations between Turkey and Armenia. Being the co-chairman of the only official foundation between the two countries, Soyak turned down all of the invitations.

He said that Armenia had nothing to do with the bill in the French parliament and added even if there had been this kind of genocide, it was not France’s concern.

According to Soyak, who said the negotiations between Turkey and Armenia had continued, the two nations had lived together in peace for almost seven centuries and they wanted to continue living together without any problems.

Soyak further asserted that the countries that did do not want Turkey to join the European Union brought the EU, the so-called Armenian genocide and Cyprus issues to the agenda constantly and wanted to prevent Turkey’s EU accession by these means.

Soyak claimed another reason behind the discussion over the so-called Armenian genocide was not to let Turkey-Armenia relations improve, and added: “Whenever the relations between Turkey and Armenia tend to get better, whenever the trade relations between the two countries develop the bill comes to France’s agenda.”

He added: “The draft bill was on the agenda on January 18, 2001 before this. The Turkish prime minister was Bulent Ecevit then. At that time, Turkey and Armenia were about to take steps in the way to solution in an EU country in two weeks time. France learned this and prevented the meeting.”

Soyak does not agree with France that Armenians in the Diaspora support the bill. Soyak said only 15 members of the Armenian parliament, constituting the extremist nationalists, support the so-called Armenian genocide and added the Armenian government does not demand this.

Soyak said Armenia wanted to solve this problem only with Turkey without intervention of third parties and added the JDP government could solve this until the general elections in Turkey and provide the Caucasus with permanent peace.

Tourism Benefits from Solution of Problem

Soyak said if the problems between the two countries were solved, the tourists visiting Armenia would also visit Turkey and vice versa. Soyak said 200,000 tourists visited Armenia last year and added: “We have asked the tourists in Armenia whether they would like to visit Turkey for three days if the border gates were opened, and the answer was positive in general. Eastern Anatolia would have the chance to host 300,000 to 500,000 more tourists by these means.”

News Source:  ZAMAN