IF TURKEY RECOGNISES THE VENDEE GENOCIDE IN FRANCE
Journal of Turkish Weekly, Turkey
Dec 2 2006
* France Warned Turks Could Scrutinize their History
France, which is preparing to pass a law to penalize those who deny
the alleged Armenian genocide, received a historical warning from its
own public that it should not history like Stalin’s USSR, Hitler’s
Germany, and Mao’s China and leave history to historians.
Historian Henri Amouroux, a member of the prestigious Institut de
France spoke out against the political move to penalize the denial
of the alleged Armenian genocide and mentioned the 1792-1794 Vendee
massacres.
In his article in Le Figaro, Amouroux asked what would happen if the
Turks recognized the Vendee genocide. He said that the French would
certainly respond that this was none of their business and they should
first look at their own past.
Stating this would be a "reasonable" decision, the French historian
wrote it was unacceptable for the Turks to attempt to ban a denied
but apologized for historical issue freely discussed in France.
Amouroux later recalled the terrible massacres in Vendee conducted
by the Republican Army and said no law in France bans discussing or
denying the Vendee genocide.
"The task of the politicians is not to impose their own realities,
let us leave history to time," Amouroux said. The French historian
reiterated the historical manipulations in Stalin’s USSR, Hitler’s
Germany and Mao’s China and warned French politicians not to make
the same mistake.
Amouroux said he thinks his country’s legislators "do not intend to
imitate the shame of those making up an official history."
The 1792-1794 Vendee incidents are one of the taboo issues of France’s
history.
People working on farms in several regions in Western France revolted
against the Republican government’s practices to defend their freedom,
church, and king.
Angry at the revolt, Paris initiated a terrible massacre in Vendee.
About 380,000 of the 900,000 people living in Vendee were murdered
in the 1790s, General Hoche informed.
The methods of the Republican army, which including strangling,
burning, and drowning, still spark reactions.
Several French historians regard the incidents as genocide whereas
the state rejects it.
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