French presidents have a habit to abuse alleged Armenian genocide for political gains. Sarkozy successor new French president Hollande aims putting Armenian genocide bill back on table.

Paris / NationalTurk – After bilateral ties between Turkey and France had decreased to a level of total rupture as Erdogan tried not to capitulate during Sarkozy-era. After Sarkozy lost French presidential elections and François Hollande became new president it was heralded as a positive sign for French Turkish relations since Hollande administration initial approach to Armenian genocide bill looked like as Turkey had wished to be. But looks can be deceiving…

France Turkey relations have a hard time to recover due to Armenian genocide claims

Turkey has brought an end to its sanctions against France following Hollande’s positive approach toward Turkey in a restoration of ties that had been severly damaged under the rule of former French leader Nicholas Sarkozy.

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan decided to end eight measures against France – mostly military – Decision came after Erdogan met with Hollande for the first time in Brazil at an UN meeting last month.

Better the devil you know ! New French president follows in the footsteps of Sarkozy

France prepare to present a new law criminalising the denial of the alleged Armenian genocide in fall 2012, the head of a group representing Armenians in France stated a day after Ankara issued cautious messages on the latest developments. New French President François Hollande supports the idea of putting a new bill on the table to penalise denial of the 1915 events as genocide despite regenerating Turkey-France relations after previous Turkish frustration and diplomatic ultimatoms at a similar attempt by Hollande’s predecessor Sarkozy, nicknamed in Turkey as Sarkozyan while he was running after Armenian vote during the election period. He failed miserably..

Armenian genocide draft bill : A standing dish at French parliament

Co-president of the Coordinating Council of Armenian Organizations of France (CCAF), Franck Papazian told Agence France-Presse he would meet with French President François Hollande later in July to re-discuss the Armenian genocide bill, ‘ which will be prepared by the French government and proposed in the autumn.’ Hollande confirmed plans for a new draft law criminalizing denial of the alleged Armenian genocide in France on 7 July.

Elaborating on Hollande’s remarks yesterday in Ankara, Turkish President Abdullah Gül said that in his bilateral meeting with the new French president, they agreed to move Turkish-French relations forward and strengthen ties while taking mutual interests into account. Turkey will follow the consequences, Abdullah Gül added, adding that they would not act on speculation.

Turkey concerned new French president’s political motives over Armenian Genocide

Political motives urge the new French president to take action for supporting a new law criminalizing the denial of Armenian genocide  allegations in the shadow of 1915 incidents, Turkish European Union Minister Egemen Bağış expressed yesterday. ‘ As the rate of the votes Mr. Hollande received in elections is close to the number of votes he could not collect, he may be seeking to expand his political ground,’ Bağış stated. Turkey will now closely observe the number of steps to be taken by France, he continued.

The Turkish Foreign Ministry is also paying more attention to a statement from French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius made in a meeting between the two countries’ foreign ministers on July 5 in Paris. During the joint press conference, Fabius recalled that an earlier attempt to criminalize the denial of the Armenian genocide claims was annulled by the French Constitutional Council and severely hurt bilateral relations between France and Turkey. Laurent Fabius added that a fresh attempt in FrenchParliament would mean experiencing such bitter times again.

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