Adoption of the bill by the French Parliament reinforces Armenia’s security
(Analysis)
20.10.2006 16:40
Armen Manvelyan
"Radiolur"
As it was expected, the adoption of the law penalizing the
denial of the Armenian Genocide in the French Parliament brought
forward controversial comments and even criticism. No one had the
slightest doubt that it would be discussed by Turkish h media and
society. Criticism came also from the bureaucratic system of the
European Union, which is not surprising, either. The latter consider
issues proceeding from political interests of their structure,
rather than from the perspective of revelation of the historic truth
and correct assessment of events. Yet, it is understandable that
adoption of such a law will seriously hamper the process of EU-Turkey
talks, and it will disturb them more than a similar law adopted by
the European Parliament. Nevertheless, turning to the core of the
question, let’s try to discuss it from the standpoint of Armenia’s
interests in order to understand what it will give us. It’s not a
secret that the Republic of Armenia and the unrecognized Nagorno
Karabakh Republic are surrounded with the hostility of Turkey and
Azerbaijan, and this is the reality we cannot escape. The situation
was created in the first half of the past century in the result of the
genocide perpetrated by Turks, when the Armenian people was deprived of
the right to live on its historic land. As it is known the reason of
such policy was the national aspiration of Turks who wished to unite
all Turkic nations and move to Central Asia and Siberia to conquer
all the lands inhabited by Turkish-speaking peoples. A considerable
part of the Armenian nation fell victim of these political ambitions
called Panturkism. Although 90 years have passed after these events,
Turkish ambitions and priorities have not changed, and unfortunately,
today we cannot say we are safe from attacks and aggression of this
kind. One of the reasons is that up to now the Armenian Genocide has
not been condemned by the international community and has not been
acknowledged by Turkey. No one will refute the danger of reoccurrence
of an uncondemned crime. Therefore, we can say that the step of the
French Parliament was the first attempt to prevent any possible future
anti-Armenian crimes of Turkey and Turks in general. Anyway, the time
will come to answer for everything. It is clear that the activity of
the French Parliament is not enough, decisions of the whole Europe and
especially the US Congress are necessary here. To put it different,
French legislators promote the rise of Armenia’s security level in
the region. And it is from this very perspective that the adoption
of the bill penalizing the Armenian Genocide is to be considered.