FRENCH DENIAL?
Cem Oguz

New Anatolian, Turkey
April 27 2006

A short while ago it was reported that France’s Armenian lobby, with
the help of the Socialist Party, was stepping up efforts to pass a law
that would punish genocide deniers with time in prison. I previously
thought about touching on this highly controversial move by our French
friends and question their stance on the Armenian allegations, but
then I simply gave up. Turkey and Turkey-related issues, its bid for
European Union membership in particular, have become so intertwined
with French domestic politics that I thought commenting on the subject
would only be writing on water.

Sometimes, however, events speak for themselves. The remarks made
by French politicians, first and foremost those by Foreign Minister
Philippe Douste-Blazy in response to accusations from Algerian
President Abdelaziz Bouteflika, precisely exemplify this phenomenon.

Although subsequently repealed by President Jacques Chirac, the
French National Assembly’s approval last year of a law claiming
French colonialism played a positive role has been responsible for
substantial tension between Paris and Algiers. The Algerian government
officially called on France to apologize for crimes committed during
its colonial rule. On the 60th anniversary of the massacres, Bouteflika
not only condemned the French Army’s attack on the cities of Setif
and Guelma in May 1945, which claimed the lives of 45,000 Algerians,
but also called on Paris to act responsibly. The most interesting
remarks, however, came from Amar Bakhouche, the Algerian Senate
speaker. Speaking to AB Haber.com at the time, Bakhouche complained
about Western impositions on less developed or developing countries
and urged France to clean up its own backyard before getting involved
in the Armenian allegations. He then criticized the French standpoint
on Turkey’s EU membership bid, arguing that a Muslim population is
undesired in the European Union.

Since then various French politicians have made statements that add a
great deal of weight to the widely expressed view that “history should
be left to historians.” Then French Foreign Minister Michel Barnier,
for instance, stated that historians from both Algeria and France
had to be encouraged to work together. But the same Barnier reminded
Turkey of its duty to come to terms with its past and urged it to
recognize the Armenian “genocide.” He underlined that France didn’t
consider Turkish acknowledgement of that a precondition for EU entry,
but insisted his country would raise the issue once talks opened.

Two weeks ago, to set a new course in turbulent Franco-Algerian
relations, Douste-Blazy made an official visit to Algeria. Signing a
delayed friendship accord between the two countries that, according
to analysts, resembled the 1963 Franco-German reconciliation treaty,
was to be the most crucial undertaking on Douste-Blazy’s trip. For
the French government such a treaty would have been a move to patch
up relations. Yet the treaty wasn’t signed, on the pretext that
both parties needed more time to strike a deal. More importantly,
a week after the French foreign minister’s visit, Bouteflika accused
France of having committed genocide during its occupation of Algeria
which lasted for 132 years. According to the Algerian president,
this genocide “was not only against the Algerian people but also
against Algerian identity.”

The remarks of Bouteflika, who subsequent to his speech went to France
for medical treatment at a military hospital, stirred up substantial
discontent in French domestic politics. Far-right leader Jean-Marie
Le Pen, himself with a dubious record of service in the Algerian
War, argued that accusing France of having committed genocide of
Algerian identity not only had no historical meaning but was also
an unfounded insult aimed at the country. Right-wing nationalist
Movement of France leader Philippe de Villiers attacked the French
government for what he described as its cowardice for refusing to
comment on Bouteflika’s remarks. Last, but not least, Lionnel Luca,
a deputy from the ruling Union for a Popular Movement (UMP) Party,
portrayed Bouteflika’s visit as “indecent,” adding that it wasn’t
the first time the Algerian president had insulted France.

Douste-Blazy, too, wasn’t late in responding. He accused the Algerian
president of engaging in polemics. According to the French foreign
minister, colonialism had had a positive role as well. Supposedly,
the much-complained horrors took place only at the beginning of
the conquest. He then concluded that the recently-invented term
“genocide,” as taught by philosophers and intellectuals such as Primo
Levi, should never be “overused.”

Well, what do you all think? Is this also a denial by the French?