Turkey bars Sarkozy from Syria conference

Turkey's anger over a French legislation that aims to outlaw denial of the Armenian genocide shows no sign of dissipating. Ankara now plans to snub French president Nicolas Sarkozy by not inviting him to the Friends of Syria meeting due to take place in Istanbul later this month. The Turkish daily Zaman reports that the French foreign minister Alain Juppe will be asked to come but Sarkozy won't as a protest at a French bill to criminalise denial of claims that Armenians were subject to genocide at the hands of the Ottoman Empire. China and Russia, who stayed away from last month's Friends of Syria meeting in Tunis, will be invited to the meeting, Zaman reports. Despite the row of the Armenian genocide France and Turkey have led international condemnation of Syria. Both countries initially raised the prospect of setting up humanitarian corridors in Syria to protect civilians fleeing the violence, but have since gone quiet on the idea. Over the weekend Turkey's foreign minister Ahmet Davutoglu called the violence in Syria "a crime against humanity". Juppe made a similar claim last month.