FILE/FRANCE/ARMENIA: In a final vote, French legislators could make illegal the denial that the 1915 mass killing of Armenians by Ottoman Turks was genocide. Turkey warns France of consequences

Record ID: 328891

  • Title: FILE/FRANCE/ARMENIA: In a final vote, French legislators could make illegal the denial that the 1915 mass killing of Armenians by Ottoman Turks was genocide. Turkey warns France of consequences
  • Date: 23rd January 2012
  • Summary: YEREVAN, ARMENIA (FILE - 2006) (ORIGINALLY 4:3) (REUTERS) SIGN READING 'ARMENIAN GENOCIDE' DURING COMMEMORATION YEAR EXTERIOR GENOCIDE MUSEUM DURING POPE'S VISIT TO REMEMBER THE VICTIMS OF KILLINGS IN 1915 BY OTTOMAN TURKS LATE POPE JOHN PAUL II AND ARMENIAN PRIESTS DURING REMEMBRANCE CEREMONY AROUND FLAME INSIDE MONUMENT AT THE GENOCIDE MUSEUM POPE AND PRIESTS THROWING FLOWERS NEAR FLAME CHOIR SINGING POPE JOHN PAUL LISTENING
  • Embargoed: 7th February 2012 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: France
  • Country: France
  • Topics: Crime
  • Reuters ID: LVA6J1GECYQNC8WB6A187M4O8JVF
  • Story Text: France is set to adopt a new law which would make it illegal to deny the 1915 mass killing of Armenians by Ottoman Turks amounted to genocide.
    Armenians commemorate the victims every year. Backed by many historians and parliaments Armenia says about 1.5 million Christian Armenians were killed in what is now eastern Turkey during World War One in a deliberate policy of genocide ordered by the Ottoman government.
    Muslim Turkey accepts many Christian Armenians died in partisan fighting, which began in 1915, but questions the figure and therefore argues it does not amount to genocide.
    The then head of the catholic church, Pope John Paul II, attended a huge ceremony in 2006 where French-Armenian singer Charles Aznavour famously sang the Ave Maria in front of the pontiff.
    Aznavour, who in 2009 agreed to become Armenia's ambassador to Switzerland, has thanked President Nicolas Sarkozy last December for proposing the bill.
    France has a 400,000-strong Armenian diaspora and few of them, including the younger generation, are insensitive to the events of WWI. According to the Armenian Genocide website, 21 countries have recognised the Armenian genocide.
    But Turks also consider it a matter of national pride. Successive Turkish governments, and the vast majority of her citizens, charging their forefathers with genocide is a profound national insult. Ankara argues that there was heavy loss of life on both sides during fighting in the area.
    Senators will be called into the French upper house on Monday (January 23) to vote on the genocide bill which was approved by the French National Assembly last month.
    The 3,000 French nationals of Turkish origin who demonstrated peacefully outside the parliament ahead of the vote was not enough to stop French deputies to vote in favour of the bill in a first instance and prompted Turkish authorities to cancel all economic, political and military meetings with France.
    Critics from both Turkey and France have said the law would constitute an intrusion in Turkish affairs and that President Nicolas Sarkozy, who is expected to stand for re-election in three months time, was trying to get the vote of the 500-thousand-strong Armenian community.
    Senator Philippe Kaltenbach reutes this saying it has nothing to do with Turkish affairs. It is about crimes against humanity.
    "A genocide is a crime against humanity. A crime against humanity isn't just the affair of the Turks and the Armenians but it is the affair of the whole of human kind. It is only natural that many countries have a say on the subject. France isn't the only one, there are at least thirty countries which have recognised the 1915 genocide. This is also a way to put pressure on Turkey so as to change civil society and the Turkish government to get to a recognition that there really was a genocide in 1915, that's what all serious historians say and Turkey, which is a great country, would come out of it even greater by recognising mistakes of the past," he told Reuters TV.
    France already passed a law recognising the killing of Armenians as genocide in 2001. The French lower house first passed a bill criminalising the denial of an Armenian genocide in 2006, but it was rejected by the Senate in May last year.
    Turkish diplomats have said such law would damage relations between Ankara and Paris.
    Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu appealed to French intellectuals last Wednesday (January 18) saying he hoped French politicians would think twice before casting their votes on the genocide.
    "I am optimistic that French senators and French intellectuals will make a new assessment. We respect their own values, the value of freedom of expression. That is our hope, and the wisdom, the collective wisdom of French intellectuals and senators, politicians will overcome this issue. That is our hope, if not, we will see what will happen," Davutoglu told Reuters Television.
    Turkey has said it is prepared to discuss the controversial historical episode. During a visit by French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe Turkey proposed to take part in a joint commission with Armenians.
    Davutoglu last November said such a law would contradict what he called 'France's intellectual traditions' and that it would stand 'against freedom of thought'.
    But for Armenia, the law is an affirmation of the French intellectual tradition of supporting human rights.
    "Today, by the adoption of the bill criminalizing the denial of genocide in the National Assembly, France re-confirmed its high mission of being the cradle of human rights and once again proved its commitment to universal human values. On this occasion I would like to reiterate words of gratitude to the highest authorities of France, the National Assembly and the entire French people," said Armenia's Foreign Minister Edward Nalbandian.
    Turkey has said it is prepared to discuss the controversial historical episode. During a visit by French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe Turkey proposed to take part in a joint commission with Armenians.
    But, as Turkey's envoy to France made clear, such a commission is unlikely to yield the result that Armenia is seeking. The envoy, Tahsin Burcuoglu, who was immediately recalled after the senate vote, said Turkey will never recognise it committed genocide.
    "In any case, you have to know, as our prime minister repeated, Turkey will never recognise this story concerning the so-called Armenian genocide," he said last December.
    The genocide Museum, a memorial monument which overlooks the Armenian capital Yerevan, is one of the most visited places in the country. Students and children are often bussed there for educational purposes. They lay wreath and flowers at the monument and sing patriotic songs commemorating the national heroes of the past and recent history.
    It is also where tens of thousands of Armenians gather every year, on April 23rd and 24th, to remember what they passionately believe to be more than million of their forefathers killed during the first world war by Ottoman Turks.
    And the emotion has not dampened almost a century later.
    The French law, if passed, would also apply to other genocide such as the Holocaust or the genocide of Bosnians during the Bosnian war.
    Senators are due to vote on Monday afternoon in a session that could carry on well into the night.
  • Copyright Holder: FILE REUTERS (CAN SELL)
  • Copyright Notice: (c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2015. Open For Restrictions - http://about.reuters.com/fulllegal.asp
  • Usage Terms/Restrictions: None
Register