French President Jacques Chirac on Saturday urged Turkey to recognize World War I-era massacres of Armenians as genocide if it wants to join the European Union, speaking during a visit to the Armenian capital. In comments that are likely to irritate Ankara and put a further strain on its relations with France, Chirac told a news conference Turkey needed to face up to its past in response to a question on the nation\'s EU ambitions. Asked if he thought Turkey should recognize the 1915-1917 massacres as genocide before it joins the EU, the French president replied: \"Honestly, I believe so.\" \"All countries grow up acknowledging their dramas and their errors,\" said Chirac, who is on a two-day visit to Armenia, where he has paid homage to Yerevan\'s \"genocide\" memorial and attended the inauguration of a \"France Square\" in central Yerevan. Until now, France had refused to make a direct link between the genocide issue and Turkey\'s EU membership bid. The bloc has not made it a condition of entry. France, which has 400,000 citizens of Armenian descent, officially recognized the events as genocide in 2001, putting a strain on its relations with fellow NATO member Turkey. A proposal by France\'s socialists to make genocide denial a crime punishable by a year in prison and a 45,000-euro fine has elicited further ire in Turkey, but Chirac said he did not support the proposal. \"France has fully recognized the tragedy of the genocide and all the rest is more like polemics than legislative reality,\" he said of the proposal. Armenia has campaigned for Turkey to recognize the WWI massacres, in which it says 1.5 million Armenians died, as genocide. But Turkey argues that that 300,000 Armenians and at least as many Turks died in an internal conflict sparked by attempts by Armenians to win independence in eastern Anatolia. (middle-east-online.com)