RFE/RL EU: France Says Turkey Must Recognize Armenian Atrocities Before
Joining EU
Tuesday, 14 December 2004

Three days before a key European Union summit that is likely to give
Turkey a date for starting formal entry talks, French Foreign Minister
Michel Barnier has said that Ankara must reassess its past. Barnier said
yesterday that Turkey must come to terms with the mass killing of
Armenians in the late years of the Ottoman Empire before it can enter
the EU. The remarks have already provoked reactions in Turkey. Ankara
has long denied charges that Turks committed genocide against Armenians.

By Jean-Christophe Peuch

Prague, 14 December 2004 (RFE/RL) — The comments by French Foreign
Minister Michel Barnier came after talks in Brussels with his
counterparts from the 24 other European Union countries.

Barnier told reporters that France wants Ankara to reconsider its
position on the mass killings of Ottoman Armenians at the start of the
last century before it joins the EU.

“Regarding Armenia, I mentioned the request that France will make during
the negotiations [with Turkey] for a recognition of the tragedy that
took place at the beginning of the [last] century and that concerned
hundreds of thousands of Armenians,” Barnier said.

It was the first time a French government official publicly established
a link between the Armenian atrocities and Turkey’s EU aspirations.

Barnier said France would file an official request with the Turkish
government after the EU gives Ankara a date for the start of formal
entry talks.

Ankara’s membership bid will be reviewed at the EU’s winter summit on 16
and 17 December in Brussels. The bloc has already made it clear that it
will give positive answers.
According to most Western estimates, massacres and deportations between
1915 and 1923 claimed up to 1.5 million Armenian lives. Another 200,000
Armenians reportedly were killed between 1894 and 1896.

Most Western and Armenian scholars blame the nationalist Young Turk
leaders that ruled over the Ottoman Empire during World War I for a
deliberate policy of extermination.

Although the successive governments that came to power after the
creation of the Turkish Republic in 1923 deny any links with their
Ottoman predecessors, they have always refused to recognize the killings
of Armenians as genocide.

Ankara insists the 1.5-million death toll is inflated and says that, if
300,000 Armenians did die during those years, this was largely the
result of civil unrest that also claimed the lives of thousands of Turks.

Citing historical evidence, Western and Armenian scholars in turn say
the Young Turks sought to systematically deport and massacre the
empire’s Armenian population, partly in retaliation for its suspected
collaboration with Russia.

Since 1923, Turkey has resisted and condemned any attempt by foreign
parliaments or governments to raise the Armenian genocide issue.

In June 2001, the French parliament passed a cautiously worded bill that
recognized the 1915-1923 killings of Ottoman Armenians as genocide.

Although the French government opposed the initiative, President Jacques
Chirac signed the bill into law. This prompted a swift reaction from
Ankara, which threatened to sever economic and cultural ties with Paris.

Turkey’s anger eventually abated after a few weeks and bilateral
relations went back to normal.

Up until a parliamentary debate today, Barnier was careful to not
describe the 1915-1923 killings as “genocide.” Still, a Turkish Foreign
Ministry spokesman immediately reacted to his initial comments, saying
his country would “never recognize any so-called genocide.”

Armenia, which has put recognition of the genocide worldwide on its
foreign policy agenda, welcomed France’s position.

Speaking to reporters in Yerevan today, Foreign Minister Vardan Oskanian
said that Barnier’s remarks in Brussels “show once again that the
question of the genocide has gone beyond the Armenian framework and is
now a global issue.”

In an interview with Reuters last week, Oskanian said he hoped Turkey
would change its stance on the genocide after it enters into talks with
the EU.

Regional experts say Ankara’s attitude toward the Armenian issue is
deeply rooted in Turkeys’ educational system, which glosses over the
country’s cultural diversity in a bid to promote a unifying Turkish
national identity.

However, Barnier said that in France’s view, Ankara cannot aspire to EU
membership if it refuses to come in terms with its past.

“If, as I think, the core idea of Europe’s project is that all its
members should reconcile one with another — like France and Germany,
which have put reconciliation at the center of their project — and that
each member state should reconcile with its own past, then I believe
that when the time comes Turkey, too, will have to come in terms with
its own past and history and recognize this tragedy,” Barnier said.

In comments on France 2 public television today, the foreign minister
reiterated that Paris is not making this a condition for the opening of
entry talks with the EU. Barnier said that would not be legally possible.

“This is an issue that we will raise during the negotiation process. We
will have about 10 years to do so and the Turks will have about 10 years
to ponder their answer. It is not a condition we’re making for the
opening of negotiations that will be discussed by EU leaders this coming
Thursday and Friday,” Barnier said.

Results of an opinion survey released today by the Paris-based French
Institute of Public Opinion (IFOP) show a majority of citizens in France
and Germany remain opposed to Turkey’s entry into the EU.

Those who object to Ankara’s accession cite its human rights record, its
cultural and religious differences with European countries, and the
status of women in Turkish society.

However, they make no mention of the Armenian issue.

PHOTO CAPTION: “This is an issue that we will raise during the
negotiation process. We will have about 10 years to do so and the Turks
will have about 10 years to ponder their answer.” — French Foreign
Minister Michel Barnier