Turkish business urges calm over France's Armenia bill

The appeals for calm from prominent business leaders came after French President Jacques Chirac distanced himself from the parliamentary measure.

The vice president of the powerful Turkish Union of Chambers and Commodities Exchanges (TOBB), Huseyin Uzulmez, warned against a widescale consumer boycott that could have a major impact on economic relations, amounting to 8 billion euros in two-way trade last year.

"We should not be too exaggerated in our reaction," he was quoted as saying by the Anatolia news agency, while he called on shoppers to "use reason."

Turkish officials have resisted calls for an outright boycott of French goods with perhaps an eye on the country's precarious bid to join the European Union.

Commercial ties between the two countries run deep. Some 250 French companies have strong links with Turkey stretching back many years.

Automaker Renault, for example, employs hundreds of people at a factory in the northwest of the country.

Lutfu Yenel, head of the Turkish affiliate of French telecoms group Alcatel, said he was astounded by calls for a boycott of his company.

But although an official ban is unlikely, Turkish consumers and businesses were expected to vent their anger by not buying French.

The country's consumer organization, for instance, has said that a boycott would begin at the 500 gas stations in Turkey owned by France's Total.

Every week there would be an appeal to boycott products from a new French firm until the genocide bill is scrapped, the organization threatened. TDN with AFP

/Turkish Daily News/