Senior officials of French-owned companies operating in Turkey have said a controversial bill that passed the French Senate, criminalizing denying that the mass killings of Armenians at the hands of Ottomans in the World War I-era almost a century ago was genocide, is “disturbing and unnecessary,” Economy Minister Zafer Çağlayan told reporters in Ankara on Friday.
The French Senate last Monday voted for the controversial bill, ignoring warnings from Turkey. Both the ruling and opposition parties as well as NGOs in Turkey were infuriated by the passing of the bill while some unions called for a mass boycott on French products.
Çağlayan met senior officials from French companies that operate in Turkey at the Ministry of Economy early on Friday in Ankara. The minister spoke to the press following the meeting while company officials declined to make any comments. “We discussed the possible outcomes of the latest bill with the representatives of French firms. They said what the Sarkozy government did was unreasonable and you do not have to be a Turk to see that. … We maintain our hopes that the French politicians will find a way to correct their mistake. Everybody knows that this was a populist decision and it will not bring benefit to either side,” Çağlayan noted. The minister said representatives of French-owned firms in Turkey also met with French senators for a possible solution in Paris. “The companies at today’s meeting stressed that they are happy with their investments in Turkey.” Çağlayan recalled that a senior official from a French company had said “they wished some French politicians could behave as sensible as Turkish officials did.” “Another French entrepreneur wrote an article in which he said the genocide bill was unnecessary.”
France is Turkey’s fifth largest exports market -- with a total exports volume of $6.9 billion in 2011. French companies are active in the fields of banking, energy, automobiles, retail, cosmetics and pharmaceuticals in Turkey. Observers argue a mass boycott of French goods might affect sales of individual businesses and force them to pay much more for advertising. Turkey responded to genocide allegations by saying that the 1915 killings of Armenians were not ordered by the central Ottoman administration; rather, they were the work of individuals who were angered by Armenian gangs killing Muslim civilians in what is today eastern Turkey while the territory was under the threat of a Russian invasion.
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