With the French parliament set to vote tomorrow on a bill that would allow for the punishment of anyone who denies that the 1915 mass killings of Armenians by the Ottomans was a genocide, relations between Turkey and France continue to worsen. Ankara is warning of political, economic and cultural consequences if the legislation is passed and is suggesting it contravenes European values.
Some prominent Turkish Armenians have now also entered the fray, voicing their opposition to the French move. Most prominent among them is Orhan Dink, brother of slain journalist Hrant Dink, who told a Turkish television channel he believed the French move was violated freedom of expression. Meanwhile, perhaps trying to appeal to French culinary tastes, Turkey's Armenian Patriarchate issued a statement asking France's lawmakers not to "spoil the taste of our soup of brotherhood."
As Today's Zaman columnist Orhan Kemal Cengiz reminds readers, Hrant Dink -- who had been tried in Turkey because of his insistence that the country confront its past -- opposed similar legislation when it was previously proposed in France in 2006.
For now, though, it appears that the French remain unmoved by the strong response to the proposed legislation coming from Turkey.
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