Turkey warns Europe against mounting racism, Islamophobia

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said France's legislation was introduced because of a racist and discriminatory attitude toward his country.

1/2/2012

ANKARA: Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Wednesday warned of rising racism and Islamophobia in Europe as he once again denounced a recent French bill outlawing denial of Armenian genocide.

The French bill, was a “serious manifestation of an insidious danger in Europe”, he said.

“There is an undeniable racist approach, a racist mentality … hidden behind this bill,” Erdogan said at a meeting of his ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) in Ankara.

“This is not an affair that only concerns Turkey and France. This is directly a European matter, a European Union matter,” he emphasized.

Turkey reacted furiously last week when the French Senate approved the law, which threatens with jail anyone in France who denies that the 1915 massacre of Armenians by Ottoman Turk forces amounted to genocide.

Turkey would not remain silent to rising racism and Islamophobia in Europe, Erdogan said, calling on friends of Turkey in Europe to urgently address the problem.

“Turkey is a not a country that … will bow to insidiously growing racism, xenophobia and Islamophobia in Europe,” he said.

“I would like to sincerely warn our friends in Europe that the situation in France is a serious manifestation of an insidious danger.”

On Tuesday, two separate groups of French politicians who oppose the contentious legislation — from both the Senate and the lower house of parliament — said they had requested the constitutional council to examine the law.

The council is obliged to deliver its judgement within a month, but this can be reduced to eight days if the government deems the matter urgent.

“I believe and hope that the constitutional council will act with common sense and reach a conclusion that is compatible with French values and European Union principles,” said Erdogan.

If the French senators had not taken the “racist and discriminatory” law to the constitutional council, Turkish-French relations would have suffered “irreparable harm”, he said.

Last week, the Turkish Premier warned that his Islamist-rooted government would punish Paris with unspecified retaliatory measures if French President Nicolas Sarkozy signed it into law.

Ankara has already halted political and military cooperation with France and was threatening to cut off economic and cultural ties.

France has already officially recognized the killings as a genocide, but the new law would go further by punishing anyone who denies this with up to a year in jail and a fine of 45,000 euros ($57,000).

Armenians say up to 1.5 million of their forebears were killed in 1915 and 1916 by the forces of Turkey’s former Ottoman Empire.

Turkey disputes the figure, arguing that 500,000 died, and denies this was genocide, ascribing the toll to fighting and starvation during World War I and accusing the Armenians of siding with Russian invaders.

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