Turkish foreign minister meets representatives of French companies

ANKARA (A.A) - December 16, 2011 - Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu met representatives of French companies in Ankara on Friday. Davutoglu conveyed his views to the representatives about a French resolution criminalizing rejection of Armenian allegations pertaining to the incidents of 1915. Diplomatic sources said that Davutoglu warned the executives of French companies --which invest or work in Turkey-- that the relations between Turkey and France would be harmed, if the resolution was adopted. Davutoglu said that it was unfortunate to bring such a resolution onto the agenda while there was an ongoing economic crisis in Europe. Meanwhile, a delegation of Turkish businessmen will visit Paris next week to prevent the resolution being adopted at French Parliament. In a former warning, Turkey had told the French Parliament that history could not be written by the 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. Earlier on Friday, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan sent a letter to French President Nicolas Sarkozy in order to warn the country about Armenian allegations regarding the incidents of 1915. 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.