FRANCE’S BILL
By Ozdemir Ince

Turkish Press
May 16 2006

HURRIYET- Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper labeled the Armenian
Events of 1915 a ‘genocide’. Some deputies in France are preparing
a bill to criminalize denial of the so-called Armenian genocide. I’m
certainly angry about France and the US, both of whom are using the
‘genocide’ as a political tool and can’t get rid of the fixed idea
of genocide. But there are also people in these two countries working
against this shell game.

If this bill is passed, then France will contradict its history of
freedom and make things worse while trying to erase the opprobrium
of colonialism. My wise French friends are saying that comparing the
Jewish Holocaust with the Armenian genocide is absolute nonsense. But
they aren’t the majority among French intellectuals. Moreover they
grow more intense when this issue is debated. The ‘genocide’ is so
deep in their subconscious that many of them can’t get rid of it.

A total of 400,000 Armenian people are integrated into France, and all
of them are French citizens. France is certain about Armenians being
French. This is very important. Armenian society is very influential
in every field of daily life and every profession. It has a strong
middle class.

So it’s natural that a French person supports a French Armenian. Also
it’s almost impossible to publish an article espousing the opposite
view in top newspapers like Le Monde, Liberation and Le Nouvel
Observateur. Le Monde published the views of Orhan Pamuk, Murat Belge,
Halil Berktay and Baskin Oran, but wouldn’t publish my article even
in the readers section. I wrote about the tricky maneuvers of the
French and Armenians in Cukurova between 1919 and 1921. This is one
of France’s most shameful eras, but nobody wants to learn about it
and they even aren’t interested.

Like Elisabeth Badinter, there are historians who say: ‘Turkish and
Armenian historians should study if there was a genocide in Turkey
or another place. But it’s not the business of the French Parliament
to deliver an opinion on this issue. Moreover, legal determination
of discussion about a historical event and making it criminal is
unacceptable.’ But I don’t know if this will be enough to convince
even her husband Robert Badinter, an influential politician, jurist
and writer.

Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan called representatives of French
firms and warned them to support Turkey’s stance. I don’t think that
this will work. Then France will play its European Union card. As a
matter of fact, their ambassador spoke about this a few days ago.

Turkey has to find another method, but it is difficult with this
government.