Turkey will recall its ambassador in Paris if a draft law on Armenian allegations get adopted in French Parliament

PARIS (A.A) - December 15, 2011 - Turkey will recall its Ambassador in Paris, Tahsin Burcuoglu, if a draft law that criminalizes rejection of Armenian allegations pertaining to the incidents of 1915 gets adopted at the French Parliament. In an exclusive interview with the AA, Turkish Counsellor in Paris Engin Solakoglu said that the adoption of the draft law pertaining to the incidents of 1915 will be a big blow to Turkish-French relations. Turkish Ambassador in Paris Tahsin Burcuoglu will be recalled for consultations for an indefinite period of time, Solakoglu said. In a former warning, Turkey had told the French Parliament that history could not be written by parliaments. Turkey had asked the French Parliament to implement a report that was prepared by an investigation committee at the French Parliament in 2008. In a statement posted on their web site, the Turkish Embassy in Paris said that "the investigation committee was chaired by Parliament Speaker Bernard Accoyer and the committee in its report had said that the parliaments' role was not to write history nor to make legislation that would require penalties". In their statement, the Turkish Embassy said that they hoped French authorities would leave history to historians. A draft law on the same issue had come up at the Senate in May but was not accepted by a majority. We were astonished to see an identical draft law get approved at the French parliamentary committee on laws at a time when France was getting ready for elections, the Turkish Embassy said. The French Parliament will vote on the draft law that criminalizes rejection of Armenian allegations pertaining to the incidents of 1915 on December 22. The draft law will make it possible to penalize individuals who reject Armenian allegations by a prison term of one year and a fine of 45,000 euros. -Turkey's position on Armenian allegations- Turkey has long been facing a systematic campaign of defamation carried out by Armenian lobbying groups. The Armenian diaspora has lately increased its organized activities throughout the world for the recognition of their unfounded allegations in regard to the events of 1915 as "genocide" by national and local parliaments. Turkey is of the view that parliaments and other political institutions are not the appropriate fora to debate and pass judgments on disputed periods of history. Past events and controversial periods of history should be left to the historians for their dispassionate study and evaluation. In order to shed light on such a disputed historical issue, the Turkish Government has opened all its archives, including military records to all researchers. Furthermore, Turkey encourages historians, scholars and researchers to freely examine and discuss this historical issue in every platform. In order to have an objective and complete analysis of the Turkish-Armenian relations, the Armenian archives should also be opened and made available to the public and researchers. For reaching the truth, historians must have access to all related archives. In this respect, in 2005, Turkey has officially proposed to the Government of Armenia the establishment of a joint commission of history composed of historians and other experts from both sides to study together the events of 1915 not only in the archives of Turkey and Armenia but also in the archives of all relevant third countries and to share their findings with the public. Unfortunately, Armenia has not responded positively to this initiative, yet. Turkey's proposal is still on the table. If accepted by Armenia, Turkey's proposal for setting up a Joint Commission of History would also serve as a confidence-building measure paving the way for a dialogue towards normalization of relations between the two countries. Turkey and Armenia signed protocols in 2009 to normalize relations. Dozens of Turkish diplomats and family members as well as Turkish citizens have either been assassinated or wounded in attacks perpetrated by Armenian terrorists during the 1970s and 1980s.