Zaman, Turkey
July 7 2005
France Finds The Quid Guilty of Turkish Propaganda
By Ali Ihsan Aydin
Published: Thursday July 07, 2005
zaman.com
A Paris court found the famous French encyclopedia The Quid guilty
of printing the Turkish view on the so-called “Armenian genocide”.
The court fined The Quid encyclopedias a symbolic indemnity payment
of one euro. According to the court decision the 2003 and 2004
editions of the encyclopedia, the Turkish version of events were
presented on the Armenian claim and the opinions mentioned by the
‘denying historians’ were given as if they were definite information.
The court concluded that the Turkish opinion was handled more
extensively in the encyclopedia.
The Quid was also found guilty of supporting the thesis claiming that
Armenians were deported since they cooperated with Russians against
Turks. The Robert Laffont Publishing, which published the
encyclopedia, will announce the court decision in three newspapers
and three magazines. The publishing company had made a change in its
2005 edition upon Armenian pressure. The French Armenian Case Defense
Committee (CDCA) appealed to a Paris court in 2003 to launch an
investigation against The Quid on the grounds of publishing the
Turkish version of the 1915 incidents. Commenting on the court
decision, CDCA President Harout Mardirossian said, “it is a great
victory for the memory of our grandmothers and grandfathers”‘ adding
that with this decision France sent a significant messeage to Turkey
to end its ‘denial propoganda’. Stressing that the fight against
denial would continue, Mardirossian said they would try for France’s
enacting a law to punish those denying the Armenian genocide. Four
law drafts about this issue are waiting to come to the agenda in the
French Parliament.
A Paris court heard the case in May. Armenian organizations had
claimed that the genocide is a reality accepted by everyone and there
cannot be a “Turkish opinion” and “Armenian opinion”. Accusing The
Quid of propaganda in favor of Turkey, CDCA claimed that the
viewpoint shown as scientific was in fact Turkey’s official stance
and to question the “Armenian genocide”. Refuting the accusations,
Robert Laffront Publishing said they had handled the genocide issue
taking all its aspects into consideration and that they mentioned
Armenian opinions in the section about Armenia. Formerly, the court
had convicted famous historian Bernard Lewis to a symbolic payment of
one euro for indemnity in 1995 after he spoke to French newspaper Le
Monde against the so-called “Armenian genocide”.