Getting personal

France on Friday attempted to soothe Turkish outrage over a bill criminalize denial that Ottoman Turks committed genocide against Armenians - but insisted that it has the right to decide its own laws.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy attempted to strike a conciliatory tone after Turkey withdrew its ambassador and severed ties with Paris. However, he said that the decision by France's lower house on Thursday should be respected.

"I respect the views of our Turkish friends," said Sarkozy in comments reported by the French daily newspaper Le Figaro. "It's a great country, a great civilization - and they must respect ours."

Sarkozy, speaking from Prague as he attended the funeral of late Czech president Vaclav Havel, was on the defensive after a Turkish counter claim that France committed genocide during its occupation of Algeria.

"France does not lecture anyone but France doesn't want to be lectured," said the president. "France decides its policy as a sovereign nation. We do not ask for permission. France has its beliefs - human rights, a respect for memory."

French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe admitted that the bill "without doubt, came at a bad time." The minister, who had been working to improve already strained ties between the countries, said it would now be "difficult" to restore harmonious relations.

Earlier on Friday, Turkey's ambassador to Paris had returned to Ankara and the Turkish government froze diplomatic and military ties between the nominal NATO allies.

Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan hit back personally at France's President Nicolas Sarkozy, claiming that he was "fanning hatred of Muslims and Turks for electoral gains."

"In Algeria from 1945, an estimated 15 percent of the population was massacred by the French. This is a genocide. The Algerians were burned en masse in ovens. They were martyred mercilessly," Erdogan said.

Dispute gets personal

Speaking on live television, Erdogan even said that Sarkozy's father, who served in the French Foreign legion, might have direct knowledge of massacres in Algeria.

"If the French President Mr Sarkozy doesn't know about this genocide he should go and ask his father. I am sure he would have lots to tell his son about the French massacres in Algeria."

Sarkozy's father, Pal, dismissed the comments as "completely ridiculous."

"I have never been to Algeria," he said. "I've never been beyond Marseille and I was in the foreign legion for just four months."

The bill approved by France's National Assembly on Thursday makes denial that the massacre of Armenians was genocide a crime punishable by a fine of 45,000 euros ($58,000 dollars) and a year in jail.

Armenia claims that up to 1.5 million people were either killed or died of neglect in deportation marches to the Syrian Desert between 1915 and 1918. Ankara says between 300,000 and 500,000 Armenians were killed, but claims the deaths resulted from "civil unrest" rather than any systematic policy of genocide.

Franco-Turkish relations have often been tense, with Sarkozy opposed to allowing Turkey joining the European Union and his government accused of policies that discriminate against Muslims.

Author: Richard Connor (AFP, dpa, Reuters)
Editor: Andreas Illmer