Turkey News... Three quick stories

Avalanche Kills Four In Northeast Turkey - Officials

DOW JONES NEWSWIRES
December 14, 2004 9:02 a.m.

ANKARA (AP)--An avalanche on Tuesday killed four people and injured three others in northeastern Turkey , officials said. Two others were reported missing.

The casualties occurred when the avalanche struck and collapsed a two-story house in the town of Savsat in the Black Sea province of Artvin, said Gov. Orhan Kirli of Artvin, the Anatolia news agency reported.

Rescue workers pulled out the bodies of four people from the debris of the house and were still looking for two missing people, the agency said. Three others were injured in the incident in Artvin, some 1,000 kilometers northeast of Ankara, the capital.

Fire At Movie Theater In Istanbul Injures Dozens

DOW JONES NEWSWIRES
December 14, 2004 10:24 p.m.

ISTANBUL, Turkey (AP)--A fire broke out at a movie theater during a gala premiere Tuesday night, slightly injuring more than 100 people, officials said.

The fire erupted at the opening of the Turkish film "Magic," with hundreds of people inside the theater. Several people were trapped inside during the blaze but were later rescued by firefighters, witnesses said.

At least 130 people were evacuated to local hospitals, police said. Most were suffering from smoke inhalation and none were believed to be in serious condition, local health official Emrah Tuncer said.

Police officials said the fire appeared to have been accidentally caused by candles being used as decoration.

France: Past Armenia Deaths Won't Block Turkey EU Talks

DOW JONES NEWSWIRES
December 14, 2004 9:27 a.m.

PARIS (AP)--France will not insist that Turkey acknowledge its record concerning the killing of Armenians nearly a century ago as a condition to opening talks with Ankara over European Union membership, the French foreign minister said Tuesday.

Clarifying remarks he made in Brussels Michel Barnier said France would still seek Turkish recognition of the killing of Armenians in Turkey from 1915-23.

The issue looms as E.U. leaders prepare for a summit Thursday and Friday to discuss setting a start date for negotiations for Turkey to eventually join the 25-nation bloc.

"It's not a condition that we are setting on the opening of negotiations like the one that the heads of state will discuss Thursday and Friday," Barnier told France-2 television.

Barnier said France would bring up the question in a round of talks likely to begin next year.

Armenia accuses Turkey of genocide in the killings of up to 1.5 million Armenians as part of the 1915-23 campaign to force them out of eastern Turkey . At that time, Armenia was part of the Ottoman Empire.

Turkey denies the genocide, says the death count is inflated and that Armenians were killed or displaced along with others as the Ottoman Empire tried to quell civil unrest.

Under E.U. rules, countries can only join if they are democracies, have functioning market economies and live in peace with their neighbors.

Armenia and Turkey do not have diplomatic relations at the moment.

French-Turkish ties became strained in 2001, when French parliament's recognition of the killings as a genocide sparked a boycott of French goods and an exclusion of French companies from Turkish defense contracts.