‘France-Turkey relations will never be the same’

Turkey could downgrade its diplomatic ties with Paris and cut cooperation in education and culture as part of a second round of sanctions against France if the country’s Senate approves a bill criminalizing the denial of the Armenian genocide today.

The French Senate is set to discuss the bill today at 3 p.m. local time.  Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu canceled a trip to Brussels where he was supposed to meet with EU foreign ministers to discuss the Arab Spring today. “He wanted to stay in Ankara to speedily evaluate the voting results of the French Senate and take necessary actions,” a diplomatic source said.

“Relations will never be the same. We have made it very clear that they are about to lose the friendship of Turkey,” a diplomatic source told the Hürriyet Daily News over the weekend, confirming that the package of sanctions was almost finalized.

The Turkish government earlier announced that it had prepared three different sets of sanctions against France with each of them to be activated in line with the legislation’s gradual passage through the French parliamentary system. The first package was composed of eight measures and mainly focused on military and political cooperation. The second, however, will be harsher than the first one, according to the diplomats.

The contentious bill threatens to punish those who deny that the 1915 events constituted genocide with a year in jail and a 45,000-euro fine.

French envoy to return home

The most important measure is expected to include the downgrading of diplomatic relations and will likely obligate French Ambassador to Turkey Laurent Bili to leave Ankara just a year after he began his term if the bill passes. Turkey will also withdraw its ambassador to Paris, Tahsin Burcuoğlu, for an indefinite time in a sign that restoring ties will take much longer than the French government believes.

However, a heavier move could be the cancelation of a bilateral treaty that helped pave the way for the establishment of Galatasaray University in 1992 following a treaty signed between the two countries. The move will not change the nature of the education at the university, the only institute of higher learning in Turkey whose language of instruction is French, but will end any official French involvement in academic work.


/Hurriyet Daily News/