Turkish president hopes resolution process will not proceed from now on

ISTANBUL (A.A) - Turkey's president expressed hope on Friday that the resolution process in France would not proceed from now on. President Abdullah Gul said he hoped France would not go on with the legislative process regarding the Armenian allegations pertaining to the incidents of 1915. "Nobody can express his/her sincere views after this resolution adopted in France, which is publicly known as a country where pluralism and everything was discussed freely," Gul told reporters in Istanbul. Gul's remarks came after the lower house of the French Parliament adopted on Thursday a resolution that criminalizes rejection of Armenian allegations pertaining to the incidents of 1915. "Historians cannot make remarks or make public their new findings, i.e. everybody who expresses views other than France's official opinion will be found guilty and punished," Gul said. Gul said nobody could believe that this was happening in France because the country was contradicting its own values. "I hope French intellectuals, politicians with common sense and businessmen will see that the resolution in fact contradicts their own values, and will overshadow French democracy, and stop the process," Gul said. Gul said Turkish government and people's reaction was totally legitimate, rightful and a self-defense, and Turkey would continue to react to the resolution. "Turkish-French relations go back to old times, however the current French president has prejudices against Turkey, and these prejudices hit a stroke on Turkish-French relations," Gul said. Gul said France was one of the three members of the Minsk Group set up to find a solution to Azerbaijani-Armenian dispute and to end instability in the Caucasus. "France should immediately withdraw from mediation in case the resolution is enacted--and I hope it will not," Gul also said. Only 70 out of 577 parliamentarians joined the voting of the resolution which was adopted with majority of votes.  The resolution envisages "one-year prison term and 45,000 Euro fine for those who deny genocide recognized by French laws." French Parliament had recognized so-called Armenian genocide in 1915 on January 29, 2001. The draft criminalizing the rejection of Armenian allegations had first been approved in 2006, but it could not become a law as French President Nicolas Sarkozy prevented its presentation to Senate. Now, the senate's approval is necessary to make the resolution a law. Turkey strongly opposes the issue of the incidents of 1915 being used as a tool in French politics. Many believe that French President Sarkozy supports the Armenian resolution in order to garner support from France's Armenian population that number around 500,000. France will hold the first round of next year's presidential election on April 22 and the second round run-off on May 6. Sarkozy is running for a second term. If the resolution is not adopted at the senate till February 22, 2012 when the parliament and senate will recess for presidential elections, it will be invalid.