FRENCH MAYOR YIELDS TO TURKISH PRESSURE

Source
Jean Eckian, (París)

19-06-2006

Three months before the opening of the "Year of Armenia" in France,
and after several demonstrations by Turkish-French nationalists,
a photographic exhibition devoted to Armenia has been cancelled

Mr. Andre Gerwig (non partisan), mayor of the town of Valentigney
(east of France), decided to cancel an exhibition by a well known
Armenian-French Photographer, Antoine Agoudjian, dedicated to the
Armenians.

The exhibition within the framework of the festival "Rythmes et
Couleurs", this exhibition presented 40 splendid photographs in black
and white (extracted from the book "Les Yeux brûlants", 2006), taken
in Armenia and Turkey between 1989 and 1999.

Two photos poked the anger of the Turkish representatives.

The first with the Title "a city inhabited in majority by descendants
of Armenian genocide of 1915, originating in Sassoun, currently
in Turkey".

And the second illustrated a gathering of people in front of the
mausoleum of Yerevan, under the Title "Memorial of the genocide
perpetrated by Turkey in 1915 was written during which a million and
half of Armenians perished".

During the opening of the exhibition, Turkish-French nationalists
barricaded the exhibition and blocked the entrance. "We feel insulted
by this exhibition; the Armenian genocide is not a reality!" one of
the demonstrators said.

Another added "We cannot agree to be fingered of a Genocide that not
all historians agree" – "We are wounded".

(note by Jean Eckian:French Parliament officially recognized in 2001
the 1915 Armenian genocide).

The municipality closed the exhibition when a request to remove the 2
offending pictures was turned down by Antoine Agoudjian, who described
it as a "serious attack to the freedom of expression" adding "should
we remove an artistic work because it disturbs? Is it normal to yield
to such pressure?"

In November 2006, the French socialist party will submit to the
Parliament a resolution requesting to penalise the denial of the
Armenian genocide.

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