Zaman, Turkey
Oct 19 2006
The French Definition of ‘Genocide’
COMMENTARY
by Prof. Dr. Ali Al-Hail
No one, I suppose, would disagree with the French parliamentary
minority Socialist MPs’ definition of genocide as "the organized
killing of a people to end their collective existence."
However, these MP’s, whose parliament building overlooks the Seine
river, seem to have a short memory about the Seine river graveyard.
Thousands of Algerians were reported to have been thrown into the
river, and left to be drowned during the late 20th century (Ahmed
Bin Billa, al-Jazeera TV, 2004). Isn’t that ‘genocide,’ an "organized
killing of a people to end their collective existence?"
The minority Socialist MPs, whose country traditionally favors art,
literature, theatre and poetry, should remember that those who
live in glass houses shouldn’t throw stones. Beginning with banning
the hijab (a woman’s head scarf) in public places and schools, to
satirizing the Prophet of mercy for all humanity, Mohammed (pbuh),
to more recently considering any denial of the Armenian ‘genocide’,
as a crime, the French National Assembly, who the Statue of Liberty
to the United States, appears to have lots of memory lapses.
Long before the notorious alleged Armenian ‘genocide’ took place in
Turkey in 1915, the brutal and barbaric colonization by the French
constituted numerous genocides against the Algerians, both inside
Algeria and in France itself, from 1832 to 1962, when the Algerians
eventually achieved their independence. About seven million Algerians
were killed during French colonization in Algeria while resisting
French occupation (President Ahmed Bin Billa, al-Jazeera TV, 2004).
Despite requests and appeals from the Algerian president, Butaflieqa
recently publicly asked France to apologize for its horrendous
‘genocides’ in Algeria. France has not yet responded.
Although many Turks, including influential thinkers and politicians,
will not deny that hundreds of thousands of Armenians were killed in
1915 during a relocation arrangement to other parts of the Ottoman
Empire, the issue of a ‘genocide’ was reported to have been conceived
as highly controversial. Some argue that those Armenians who died were
caught amid inter-communal warfare. Thus, it was not "the organized
killing of a people to end their collective existence."
In other words, it was not a ‘genocide.’ A few others in Turkey and
beyond, however, would argue that it was conscious, and as such it was
a ‘genocide.’ Despite worldwide contentious differentiation regarding
the event, Socialists in the French Assembly National, apparently
for election reasons, are determined to legalize their mind-set.
Many in France make the case that sheer politics are behind the
minority Socialists initiative. As such, there are no ethics, good
merits, or otherwise genuine concerns about the Armenian ‘genocide.’
The minority Socialists, by proposing such a bill in order to push
for a law criminalizing denial of an Armenian genocide, aim to gain
Armenian votes during next year’s presidential elections.
One presumes, as do many, that the minority Socialists also aim
to spread anti-Turkish sentiment in order to make it impossible
for Turkey, as a predominantly Muslim country, to join the European
Union. That Turkey already has an appointment from the European Union
for 2010 to negotiate its membership must be kept in mind.
Since there are more or less six million Arabs in France, mainly
from Algeria and other north African countries, this would be an
opportunistic moment for the Socialists in France to push for a
law that considers Israeli occupation forces killings in Gaza and
other Palestinian lands as ‘genocide.’ Approximately 750 Palestinian
civilians, including women and children, were killed by the Israeli
occupation forces since Jan. 25, since Hamas was voted into office
democratically. More than 3,000 civilians, including women and
children, have been either injured or maimed since then.
Additionally, nearly 4,000 civilians, again including women and
children, were arrested. If these killings are not genocide, what
can genocide be? Isn’t this an "organized killing of a people to end
their collective existence?"
Instead of crying over controversial history, without, of course,
endorsing genocides against any human race, genocides in Palestine
are clearly committed daily by Israeli occupation forces, which escape
controversy and global documentation by satellite cameras, including
French TV, the press and media. Had the French Socialists been sincere
about human suffering, they would have assuredly considered Israeli
‘genocides’ against Palestinians since as early as 1948 as real
‘genocides.’ In addition, this would certainly bring them at least
three million votes by Arab French.