ANKARA, May 13 (News Agencies) - Turkey's ambassador to France returned to Paris Sunday, five months after he was summoned home in retaliation over French legislation recognizing the killing of Armenians under the Ottoman Empire as genocide, the Anatolia news agency reported.
Ambassador Sonmez Koksal told a press conference at Istanbul airport that he was returning in a bid to "remedy the wounded Turkish-French ties".
"Nothing is permanent in international relations. Both Turkey and France have the willpower to upgrade their relations to the highest level to the benefit of both countries," he said, according to Anatolia.
Koksal was summoned to Ankara on January 18th, shortly after the French National Assembly unanimously passed the controversial Armenian genocide bill.
After the bill was promulgated by French President Jacques Chirac in late January, Turkey hit back at France by canceling some contracts awarded to French firms, excluding others from tenders, notably in the arms sector, and suspending some military and small business cooperation.
Turkey categorically rejects claims of genocide, saying that around 300,000 Armenians and thousands of Turks were killed in internal fighting in the final years of the Ottoman Empire.
Armenians, however, maintain that 1.5 million people died in orchestrated massacres that amounted to genocide.
