That's Nobody's Business But The Turks'

The bloody Turkish history of the Armenian genocide by the Ottoman Empire a hundred years ago is still something the current Turkish government refuses to talk about.  Now French President Nicolas Sarkozy has raised the stakes by considering legislation slapping down Turkey for the act and criminalizing the genocide's denial in order to win over French Armenians as elections approach, and Turkey is immediately and angrily responding with sanctions against Paris.

Ankara will announce sanctions against Paris, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Wednesday on the eve of a debate in the French parliament on a law criminalising the denial of the Armenian genocide by Turkish forces.


“Tomorrow probably I will announce what we will do at the first stage and we will announce what kind of sanctions we will have at the second and third stages,” Erdogan said late Wednesday, according to Anatolia news agency.

He said the move by French President Nicolas Sarkozy was aimed at electoral gains and would “harm Franco-Turkish relations.”

France’s estimated 400,000-strong ethnic Armenian population is seen as an important element in Sarkozy’s support base as he prepares for a tough re-election battle in April next year.

The French parliament is on Thursday expected to approve the bill, which would see anyone in France who publicly denies the 1915 genocide face a year in jail and a fine of 45,000 euros ($58,000).

Armenians say up to 1.5 million of their forebears were killed during World War I by the forces of Turkey’s former Ottoman Empire, a figure Ankara disputes.

The US and Britain have had their share of problems with Turkey since the US Congress passed a resolution condemning the genocide last year and it doesn't look like relations with Turkey and the West are going to improve anytime soon, either.