FRENCH POLICE CONFRONT PROTESTERS AS ARMENIAN PRESIDENT VISITS PARIS
by Tatul Hakobyan

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Friday October 02, 2009

Paris – French police spent an hour dragging some 300 French-Armenian
protesters out of the way to allow President Serge Sargsian of Armenia
to lay a wreath at the Armenian Genocide memorial on the banks of
the Seine River in Paris on Friday, October 2.

Mr. Sargsian was in the French capital as part of a whirlwind tour
of cities with large Armenian communities. The purpose of the tour
is to discuss Armenia’s Turkey policy. The protesters were opposed
to the terms Mr. Sargsian’s administration had agreed to for the
normalization of relations with Turkey.

At around 3 p.m. local time, the president was scheduled to lay flowers
at the statue of the great Armenian composer and ethnomusicologist
Gomidas, which the city of Paris erected in 2003 as a memorial to
the victims of the Armenian Genocide.

Holding placards reading, "To forget is to betray" in four languages,
including Turkish, the protesters – not all of whom were young – sat
and lay down to block the path to the statue. They chanted "No" in
Armenian. As the atmosphere grew tenser, many used stronger language.

Police, who outnumbered the protesters three to one, manhandled and
dragged them to a holding area away from the statue. Some protesters
were beaten. In that holding area, however, police treated the
protesters calmly, providing at least one French-Armenian man with
attention for a heart complaint.

While taking photographs, this correspondent was struck by an officer.

Once the protesters had been removed, the president approached
the statue, spent a few moments there, and placed a small
wreath. Afterward, police surrounded the statue to prevent anyone
from flinging the wreath into the Seine.

The Associated Press reports that Mr. Sargsian had had lunch earlier
in the day with crooner Charles Aznavour, who serves as Armenia’s
ambassador to Switzerland. He also met with representatives of
community organizations, as he is scheduled to do in New York on
October 3 and Los Angeles on October 4.

Under the protocols on the normalization of relations between
Armenia and Turkey, the sides would recognize the current border
and each other’s territorial integrity, and would establish an
intergovernmental commission with a sub-commission on "the historical
dimension." The protocols are subject to parliamentary ratification
in the two countries.

According to the protesters, that the sub-commission would serve to
cast doubt on the Armenian Genocide, and the language on border would
concede historical rights. They took the position that Armenia should
not make such concessions in order to end the Turkish blockade that
has lasted over 16 years.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress