Turkey strongly condemns the law proposal adopted by the French National Assembly, which deeply offends the Turkish people, defames our history on the basis of one-sided interpretations and aims to deprive us from our right to defend ourselves against this injustice.

This initiative is unjust, inappropriate and contradicts relevant rules of international law.

It is extremely unfortunate that such a serious issue is abused for electoral purposes in spite of all the demarches, friendly and constructive warnings conveyed to the Government of France, as well as promises previously received.

The introduction, this time, of criminal sanctions to the law which was adopted in 2001 also with a wrong approach, paves the way for even more negative consequences. Such parliamentary acts are problematic not only politically but also legally and morally.

This law proposal constitutes a grave example of politicization of history on account of narrow political calculations and stifling of freedom of expression by a democratic institution. France has thus preferred to ignore the universal values which it had a share in developing.

This initiative of the French Parliament, which restricts the freedom of expression of all academicians and researchers looking at historical events from different perspectives, cannot prevent the expression of the views developed on scientific basis. Nor can we accept the unilateral imposition of memory.

The proposal contradicts the international law, European norms, the reports of the French Parliament itself and the earlier official declarations of the Government of France on this issue.

The Turkish Government, the Turkish Grand National Assembly, the Turkish people and the Turkish communities living in different parts of the world, including France, find this move in the French Parliament extremely unjust.

It is a historical mistake to deal a blow with a prejudiced approach and careless moves, to the Turkish French relations that have been developing for centuries on the basis of friendship.

Following this development, we have recalled our Ambassador to France for consultations in Ankara. Today, our Prime Minister announced several measures that will be implemented at the first stage. We naturally envisage taking additional measures in line with the course of developments.

In the forthcoming period, which constitutes a test for France, we expect that necessary actions will be taken before the damage caused by this initiative on our bilateral relations reaches more severe dimensions, and we hope that ultimately common sense and reason will prevail.

December 22, 2011