EDITORIAL: FRENCH FAUX PAS

Sacramento Bee, CA
Oct 19 2006

Law could strain Europe-Turkey ties
Story appeared in EDITORIALS section, Page B8

Relations between Turkey and Europe were testy enough even before
the French National Assembly voted last week to make it a crime
to deny that the massacre of Armenians by Ottoman Turkish troops
during World War I was genocide. Aside from whether French lawmakers
are qualified to make that judgment, such a law could fuel tensions
between Europe and Islam and further weaken Turkey’s flagging bid to
join the European Union.

The vote in Paris took place just as Turkish novelist Orhan Pamuk
was named winner of the Nobel Prize for literature. Pamuk had been
charged with "insulting Turkishness" for saying Turks had killed a
million Armenians during World War I. The prosecution was dropped, but
similar charges have been brought against others despite the Turkish
government’s objections and despite the risk to Turkey’s EU bid because
they violate free speech rights. So would the proposed French law.

Both EU officials and the Turkish author oppose the French law,
which could reinforce European second thoughts about making a Muslim
country of 70 million part of the EU. Those feelings have been fueled
by the murders by Muslim immigrants of two Dutch public figures who
had criticized Islam, and by other incidents that provoked fury among
many Muslims.

The Armenian controversy will not be resolved with gratuitous laws.

Turkish officials say they are willing to allow historians with
diverse views to search the archives and reach their own conclusion.

That hasn’t happened, and growing Turkish-European tensions don’t
help. Many Turks now feel their future does not lie with a Europe
they see as hostile to them.

Speech can be truly odious, especially denial of the Holocaust, which
is a crime in France and other European countries. But criminalizing
speech that offends undermines the principles of a free society. And
a new French law on the Armenian issue invites retaliation: Some
Turkish lawmakers have called for a law to brand as genocide French
atrocities in colonial Algeria.

Turkey’s location, its democracy and its status as a Muslim society
living under secular law make it an optimum bridge between Europe and
the Middle East. Enacting gratuitous laws meant to compel people to
take sides is wrongheaded. An EU spokeswoman criticized the proposed
law by saying it "would prevent the dialogue and debate that are
necessary for reconciliation." Exactly.