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Turkey To Cut Turco-French Ties As Another Contract Cancelled
ANKARA, Jan 30 (News Agencies) - Turkey on Tuesday denounced the promulgation by French President Jacques Chirac of a bill recognizing as genocide the killings of Armenians under the Ottoman Empire, saying it would prove detrimental to bilateral ties between the countries.
Turkish Prime Minister Bulent Ecevit said the promulgation of the bill did not come as a surprise, but he described it as a "serious disappointment in our relations with France".
"We are doing what is necessary. We are reconsidering our political and economic relations," Ecevit told reporters in Ankara, without elaborating.
"We condemn France's unfriendly attitude and reject it with determination," Ecevit's three-party coalition said in a written statement.
"This is a heavy blow to Turco-French ties. The French government has failed to protect the centuries-long friendship between the two countries."
The statement added that the adoption of the controversial bill would "further encourage" xenophobia against Turks and other foreigners.
"France will bear the responsibility for possible racist attacks," it added.
Turkish Foreign Minister Ismail Cem also criticized the bill as "a small political game to win votes" from France's sizeable Armenian community ahead of municipal elections in March and general polls next year.
The bill has already resulted in a wave of public outrage against France in the form of almost daily protests in front of French diplomatic missions, and calls by trade unions to boycott French goods.
Cem also said that the bill overshadowed France's role in mediating for a resolution of an Armenian-Azerbaijan dispute over Nagorno-Karabakh.
"Turkey no longer trusts France's impartial, objective and useful mediation. The chances that the Azerbaijani people have a different opinion are slim," he said.
Turkey has threatened economic and political reprisals against France after French legislators on January 18th passed a bill acknowledging that Ottoman Turks committed genocide against the Armenian minority during World War I.
Turkey is also expected to cancel yet another contract with the French defense electronics group Thales in retaliation for the French bill, the all-news NTV channel reported Tuesday.
Thales is the second French company targeted since French deputies passed a bill charging Ottoman Turks with genocide.
Officials from Turkey's general staff and the defense ministry took the decision to oust the French company from the project, estimated at some $200 million (212 million euros), said the report.
The decision needs to be approved by Ecevit before it comes into force, NTV added.
Under the contract, Thales - formerly Thomson-CSF - was responsible for installing electronic defense systems on 80 F-16 fighters of the Turkish air force.
Turkey's state-run Aselsan firm was the local partner for installing the systems, which are designed to warn pilots of missile attacks.
Neither a Thales representative in Ankara nor officials at the Turkish defense industry confirmed whether the contract had in fact been cancelled.
Officials at the Turkish defense industry also refused to confirm or deny the report.
Last week, Turkey cancelled a preliminary contract with Alcatel for a spy satellite, worth some $200 million, and warned of more economic sanctions in the defense industry.
Turkish Defence Minister Sabahattin Cakmakoglu said at the time that the French defense contractor GIAT Industries risked being excluded from bidding on the joint production of 1,000 battle tanks.
Cakmakoglu said Tuesday that Ankara would continue to take measures in the defense industry and "not let France get away with this".
"There are French companies participating in ongoing tenders. Of course, the so-called Armenian genocide bill will play a determining role in our evaluations," the minister told reporters at parliament.
Another blow to France came from Turkey's State Grain Board (TMO), which on Tuesday excluded two French firms from a tender for the sale of 315,000 tons of wheat, NTV said.
A delegation from Germany's defense ministry arrived in Ankara Tuesday for talks on the contract with Cakmakoglu and army chief-of-staff Huseyin Kivrikoglu.
German firm Krauss-Maffei Wegmann is in the running for the contract, as are General Dynamics of the United States and Ukrspetseksport of Ukraine.
But members of Germany's ruling Social Democrat-Green coalition have objected to arms sales to Turkey because of concern about their NATO ally's human rights record.
Ecevit said Tuesday that Ankara would re-examine its economic and political ties with Paris after French President Jacques Chirac promulgated the controversial bill.
France is among Turkey's main economic partners, with bilateral trade between the two standing at some $4.5 billion (4.8 billion euros) in 1999.
Ankara categorically rejects claims of genocide, saying that some 300,000 Armenians and thousands of Turks were killed in what was internal fighting in the dissolution years of the Ottoman Empire.
Armenians, however, maintain that 1.5 million people died in orchestrated massacres between 1915 and 1917.
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