CHIRAC POKES FINGER IN TURKEY’S EYE ON ARMENIA ‘GENOCIDE’
By Andrew Rettman
EUObserver, Belgium
Oct 2 2006
French president Jacques Chirac paid no heed to Turkish sensitivities
on his first-ever visit to Armenia this weekend, calling on Turkey to
own up to "genocide" before joining the EU and comparing the killings
to Nazi Germany’s holocaust.
"Should Turkey recognise the genocide of Armenia to join the EU?" Mr
Chirac asked, AP reports. "I believe so. Each country grows by
acknowledging the dramas and errors of its past…Can one say that
Germany, which has deeply acknowledged the holocaust, has as a result
lost credit? It has grown."
The French leader made the remarks in Yerevan on Saturday (30
September) at a wreath-laying ceremony beside the country’s "Genocide
Monument", before visiting the "Genocide Museum" and writing the
solitary word "remember" in the visitors’ book.
Armenia says Turkish forces slaughtered 1.5 million Armenians between
1915 and 1917 but the Turkish government and Turkish history books
claim that 300,000 Armenians and 300,000 Turks died in a ‘civil war’
in the region.
Fifteen countries, including France, Switzerland, Russia and Argentina,
have previously classified the killings as "genocide" – defined by
the UN as "harmful acts…committed with intent to destroy, in whole
or in part, a national, ethnic, racial or religious group."
In Turkey, any deviation from the official line can land novelists
or university professors in jail under article 301 of the country’s
new penal code against "insulting Turkishness."
But there has been no official reaction to Mr Chirac’s statements so
far, despite mumblings by unnamed Turkish diplomats in the Turkish
Daily News that they are "worried" about worsening bilateral relations.
Chirac goes further than EU The French leader’s remarks go further
than Brussels’ formal EU accession conditions, which require Ankara
to boost democratic standards in areas such as free speech and to
lift its blockade on Cypriot shipping – but do not mention the thorny
Armenian question.
MEPs voting on a highly-critical report on Turkey’s EU accession
progress last week also opted to cut out a clause calling for
recognition of the Armenian genocide for fear of stirring up a
nationalist backlash in the EU’s most controversial candidate state.
Armenia itself has so far shied away from confrontation on the subject,
with president Robert Kocharian on Saturday saying merely "we would
like that our interests be discussed" in the EU-Turkey accession talks.
The small, landlocked country of 3.6 million people is in a tricky
position: it has closed borders with Turkey in the west; the prospect
of a Russian-Georgian conflict in the north; escalating tensions with
Azerbaijan in the east and borders with international pariah Iran in
the south.
But France plans to keep on pressing the issue with a vote tabled
in parliament on 12 October over a fresh resolution that Turkey must
give the Armenian killings their proper name.
About 400,000 Armenian ex-pats live in France, with some – such as
singer Charles Aznavour – rising to social prominence and with Paris
promising to hold a referendum before it ratifies Turkish EU accession
in the future.