FRANCE INCLUDES GENOCIDE ALLEGATIONS EVEN IN MEDICAL BOOKS
By Emre Demir, Strasbourg
Zaman, Turkey
March 27 2006
In France, allegations on the so-called Armenian genocide have made
their way into medical books. It has been revealed that the so-called
genocide-advocate Armenian lobby holds the copyright of some books
used in French medical faculties.
In the prefaces of Axel Balian’s books, a book students must buy,
genocide allegations are included. In the book, the European Union’s
starting negotiations with Turkey is also criticized. The whole
income of Armenian Balian’s seven books is transferred to the Armenian
associations. Especially Turkish students studying in medicine faculty
have concerns over their money being transferred to the Armenian lobby.
In France, which officially recognized the so-called Armenian genocide
in 2001, doctors joined the debates over “genocide” after politicians
and historians. In Balian’s “Hepato-Gastro-Enterologie,” book, which
is used for stomach-intestine specialization, the European countries,
which started full membership negotiations with Ankara, are criticized.
There are some striking remarks in the preface: “The income of this
book will be transferred to the associations, which are trying to
evoke the ‘genocide’ took place in 1915. Few people remember the
1.5 million Armenians that lost their lives while fleeing and in the
camps. This book is prepared in the hope that those who seem ready
to make a ‘denying country member of the EU’, should also remember
the genocide.” The Armenian doctor has seven books on the same subject.
All of the books refer to the so called Armenian Genocide and the
Copyrights of the books were transferred to Armenian Foundations.
Turkish students, who are obliged to buy these books at medical
faculties, are unhappy because their money is transferred to “genocide”
foundations. Straoussgbourg Pasteur University Freshman student Fatih
Akin said: “We have to buy this book to pass the course; however, we
are not comfortable as our money is sent to the foundations making
genocide propaganda.” Akin also said it is interesting a medicine
book gives place to a political issue like this in its preface session.
Hosting about 500,000 Armenian immigrants France had passed a law
recognizing the so called Armenian Genocide in 2001. Armenians
are quite influential in France, which hosts the biggest number
of Armenians in Europe. Tension increases every year on April 24
in France, the Genocide commemoration day, and 450,000 Turks in
France become offended by these genocide discussions. Recently the
Turks living in Lyon had organized a protest march against the
second genocide statue in the city. Some events had taken place
after Armenians attacked Turks during the demonstrations and Lyon
Governorship explained it would not longer tolerate demonstrations
against the Armenian Genocide.
Armenian Diaspora defends the number of Armenians that died between
1915 and 1916, when the Emigration Law was implemented in the Ottoman
Empire, reaches 1,500,000. The Armenian Genocide claims have been
accepted by the parliaments of 15 countries so far.