French Armenians advise caution for EU parliament's Genocide proposal

PanARMENIAN.Net - The co-chair of the Co-ordination Council of Armenian Organizations of France Ara Toranyan urged to take a cautious approach for the Motion of Armenian Genocide submitted to the European Parliament.

Several months ahead of the Genocide centenary, such an initiative might have been welcomed by the Europe's Armenian community, if there wasn't for one "if," RFI said.

"The victims of the Armenian Genocide do not belong to us, or some political force. We can't strip someone of a right to act. Our organization tried to prevent political forces from assuming the right to speak on behalf of the victims. We were always attempting to promote a compromise between French political forces, lest the issue of Genocide became a subject of political speculation," Toranyan said.

"As for the initiative of far-left politicians – I believe that the Genocide was a result of a discrimination-based totalitarian ideology. So we should take a cautious approach to such initiatives, especially since the latters are offered by movements with a questionable position on discrimination practices," he noted.

According to RFI, the wary attitude of Armenian Diaspora is quite understandable: back in 2012, on Jan 29, Marine Le Pen stated at one of her presidential election campaigns, "this whole Genocide recognition movement outrages me."

The leader of the Front National also stated, "First we must deal with our own issues, without the French parliament trying to interfere in the Armenian-Turkish history." At the same time, she stressed that Turkey, an official candidate for the EU accession since 2005, does not belong with Europe, the Genocide recognition being among key conditions to join the EU.

In early February, Belgian MEP Gerolf Annemans, chairman of Vlaams Belang party, submitted to European Parliament a motion calling on Turkey to recognize the Armenian Genocide.