GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – The Turkish government has reacted angrily to a vote by the French Senate Monday in favour of a proposal to punish those who don’t recognize genocide, including the killing of Armenians in Turkey in 1915. Turkey has long opposed international and internal efforts to label the deaths genocide, although it admits half a million Armenians were killed, while Armenians, who use the term genocide for the events, claim there were 1.5 million deaths. France in 2001 recognized the Armenian claims but the new measure would put offenders at risk for a one-year prison sentence or fine of euros 45,000.
Both the government and its opposition in Ankara condemned the French move as an attack on Turkish honour. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan suggested last week that if the Senate vote passed he might never visit France again.
Links to other sites: Hurriyet, Le Monde (Fr), TSR Swiss pubic television
Armenia, like Switzerland, is a country of mountains (Photo: Salon du Livre 2011, Geneva)
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - Sparks have flown in recent days over the display of Armenia’s version of history at the five-dayInternational Book Fair in Geneva, at Palexpo, which closes its doors today, 3 May.
Trend News, a private news agency in Azerbaijan, reports that Azerbaijan’s ambassador to Switzerland, Murad Najafbayli, complained to the Swiss Foreign Affairs Department about the materials and he reportedly also tried to insist that they should be removed from the exhibition.
At issue: the presentation of Azerbaijan’s “territorial integrity”.
Armenia was invited to the book fair as a guest of honor and its president, Serzh Sargsyan, visited the show Monday 2 May.
Switzerland’s relations with Armenia date back to at least 1896, when nearly half a million Swiss signed a petition to draw the attention of the Swiss Federal Council to massacres in the region.
Armenians have long had a tradition of sending children to Switzerland to be education.
Azerbaijan and Armenia, both formerly part of the Soviet Union, have been fighting over their territories for more than 100 years.
Basel, Switzerland(GenevaLunch) – Switzerland qualified for the finals of the 2010 World Cup by finishing top of their group after achieving a 0-0 draw against Israel. Their task was made easier when Yadin was sent off for two yellow cards, leaving the Swiss with an extra man for the final half hour. Overall the game was mediocre but the result was sufficient for automatic qualification. The other European teams to qualify are Denmark, Slovakia, Germany, Spain, England, Serbia, Italy and the Netherlands. And Turkey beat Armenia 2-0 in a match that followed the signing of agreements designed to normalize diplomatic and business relations between the two countries.
Turkish football fans have been asked to be on their best behaviour and show traditional national hospitality during a football World Cup qualifiying match in Bursa, Turkey Wednesday 14 October against long-time rivals Armenia.The match comes less than a week after the two countries restored full diplomatic relations in a ceremony in Zurich, after a century of troubled relations.
Ticket sales are tightly controlled, and the rowdiest group of fans received a personal appeal from the Turkish president, Abdullah Gul. Armenian President Serzh Sarksyan will attend the match. His Turkish counterpart attended a match Yerewan Armenialast year, in Yerewan, Armenia, opening up what has been called “football diplomacy”. Reuters, Washington Post
Zurich, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Turkey and Armenia have signed the two Protocols that were needed to normalize relations, at the University of Zurich late Saturday 10 October – but only after a last-minute delay when Armenia balked because of a speech the Turkish foreign minister had prepared. Switzerland’s mediators, who have spent over a year bringing the two countries to the table to sign, again jumped in and spent several hours working with the two parties to find a solution. In the end, no one gave a speech, and the foreign ministers from Turkey and Armenia had a long and warm handshake in the presence of Hillary Clinton, US Secretary of State, among other notable guests. Video, TSR (Fre) and background, GenevaLunch
Bern, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - The Swiss Foreign Affairs ministry late Friday 9 October confirmed officially that Turkey and Armenia will sign two Protocols, normalizing relations between the two countries, Saturday morning 10 October, in Zurich. Heads of foreign affairs from the US, Russia, France, Slovenia will be attending, as well as the EU’s secretary-general, underscoring the significance of the event.
Official statement confirming Zurich event
The official statement from Bern:
correction 11:45 Zurich, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - The Swiss government is officially mum on whether or not the event will take place, but the US State Department and the Kremlin in Russia have both announced that they are sending top officials to a ceremony in Zurich Saturday 10 October where Armenia and Turkey will formally establish diplomatic and bilateral relations. The signing of two Protocols will end a standoff that has at times flared into serious tensions, which has existed since Turkey recognized Armenia’s independence in 1991 without then establishing diplomatic relations.
Switzerland has served as mediator in the long process of talks that has finally brought the two together.
A senior US State Department official at a press briefing Thursday 8 October said that while the Swiss have not officially announced the meeting, which is opposed by some groups in both Turkey and Armenia, “They have invited the parties, and the parties have agreed to come, including Secretary [Hillary] Clinton.” The foreign ministers of France and Russia are also expected, he says.
Bern, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Turkey and Armenia will sign two Protocols to normalize their relations 11 October at a ceremony in Switzerland, but details have not yet been released by the Swiss government, which has acted as mediator in the lengthy process. The Swiss federal government announced 1 September that the two countries had initialed two Protocols and were starting six-week internal consultations on these: “Protocol on the establishment of diplomatic relations” and the “Protocol on the development of bilateral relations.” The Protocols must still be ratified by the parliaments of both countries.
The ceremony will be brief, with the parties shaking hands and signing the Protocols.
A Caspian Airlines plane carrying 168 people crashed, killing all those aboard, about 15 minutes after takeoff, near the Iranian city of Qazvin, Iranian media report. The flight was headed towards neighbouring Armenai. The cause of the crash is not yet clear. The aircraft was a Tupolev Tu-154. Reuters
Bern, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Turkey and Armenia have “agreed on a comprehensive framework for the normalization of their bilateral relations in a mutually satisfactory manner,” the two note in a brief formal statement issued jointly with Switzerland Thursday morning 23 April. Switzerland has served as mediator for the two countries, which “have been working intensively with a view to normalizing their bilateral relations and developing them in a spirit of good-neighborliness, and mutual respect, and thus to promoting peace, security and stability in the whole region. The two parties have achieved tangible progress and mutual understanding in this process and they have In this context, a road-map has been identified. This agreed basis provides a positive prospect for the on-going process.”
