France shows she is the cradle of democracy

PanARMENIAN.Net - The vote on Bill that would make it a criminal offence to deny Genocide proved it once again. But it should also be noted that such a law already exists in Switzerland and a couple of years ago Turkish politician Dogu Perincek was jailed there for denying the fact of the Armenian Genocide. And his son, Mehmet Perincek is also in prison, but in Turkey for his involvement in a terrorist organization...

Back in 2006 a similar bill was adopted by the lower house of French Parliament, but then under Turkey’s pressure President Chirac of France thought it best to lay the bill on the shelf. With the advent of Sarkozy to powre, the situation somewhat changed. After some scandalous revelations of WikiLeaks, Sarkozy decided to still get the bill off the ground. The benefits for the French president are clear: to finally put an end to Turkey's EU accession and enlist the support of the Armenian French community in the election of 2012. And, of course, to establish himself as the major democrat of Europe. It should be recalled that France recognized the Armenian Genocide still in 2001 and the current nervous hysteria of Turkey is somehow unjustified. But Ankara, apparently, never understood anything and continues, with an incomprehensible obstinacy, to deny not only the fact of the Armenian Genocide, but also the right of each state to adopt the laws it finds necessary. And it is all ridiculous that Turkish parliament is going to seriously consider a bill on “genocide in Algeria” committed by France. Most interesting is the fact that the story of 2001 repeats itself: recall of the Ambassador, near break of trade and economic relations. The blackmail policy of Turkey lasted then for two months only, after which the relations with France were restored. Most obviously, much the same will happen now, but Turkey was not even cooled by the reluctance of President Sarkozy to have a telephone conversation with Gul.

With the adoption of the bill criminalizing the Armenian Genocide denial, the massacre of 1915 equals to the Holocaust, denial of which provides for criminal penalties in many European countries. Opponents to equality between the two crimes committed in the ХХ century say that the Holocaust was recognized at Nuremberg, while the Armenian Genocide was not. But such arguments can be offered only by politicians that have little to do with history. In 1919, the court-martial in Istanbul brought a charge against the Young Turks of massacring the Armenian nation and sentenced them to death. Thus, quite ungrounded are the statements claiming that “history cannot be decided in parliaments”. Erdogan and his government have so much spoken of history that they were hoist by their own petard.

PACE President Mevlut Cavusoglu could not but have his say in this story, too. He laid the “responsibility” for the adoption of the bill criminalizing Armenian Genocide and for the deterioration of relations between Paris and Ankara on President Nicolas Sarkozy. Also noteworthy is the stance of official Baku, which by and large should not have been concerned with the Armenian Genocide issue and with Franco-Turkish relations. Quite recently Israeli expert Avigdor Eskin, who cannot be said to share good relations with Armenia, declared in Baku: “What business is that of yours? Armenian Genocide is none of your business.”