Genocide bill: political debate with international repercussions

PanARMENIAN.Net - Criminalizing the Genocide denial in France has touched off a political debate with international repercussions. The passage of the bill on December 22 in the French National Assembly has angered Turkish leaders, who are threatening France with a number of measures and decrying the “irreparable damage” to Franco-Turkish relations, should the bill be ratified by the French Senate before end of January, as predicted, Edmond Y. Azadian says in a commentary published by The Armenian Mirror-Spectator.

“In the past, Ankara used to recall its ambassador for a period and gradually forget its threats of retaliation. This time around, it does not seem to be business as usual. Indeed the Turkish Ambassador to France Tahsin Burcuoglu has returned to Paris after consultations in Ankara and he has been assigned to lead the political campaign against the passage of the bill in the French Senate. Instead of keeping the ambassador out of France, Turkey has threatened to discontinue discussions with Paris on the developments in Syria,” reads the opinion titled “Genocide Bill Makes Waves in France and Beyond.”

The author goes on to say: “As has become common knowledge by now, Washington has begun using surrogates in the Middle East to topple regimes hostile to Israel, as was the case in Libya, rather than sacrificing 4,500 of its own military, as it happened in Iraq.

Syria is the next target in line, which compels cooperation between Paris and Ankara. Turkey is also threatening to revise its military and economic relations with France. France is Turkey’s fifth largest export market and sixth largest importer with bilateral trade worth $14 billion in 2011 and growing. France is also a contender to build a nuclear power plant in Turkey, which also has become a political hot potato in the current atmosphere of tension.

In the meantime, some developments have emerged inside and outside of France, which may have a bearing on the Senate vote.

One development is the opposition party’s position on the issue; indeed, the passage of the Genocide bill had become an election campaign issue for President Nicolas Sarkozy. But the Socialist candidate for the presidency, Francois Holland, stole the wind out of Sarkozy’s sail, when he announced that he would also support the Genocide bill.

Another development was a misstep by France’s Prime Minister Alain Juppé in Ankara. Mr. Juppé headed for Ankara, where he fell into the Turkish trap by espousing one of Ankara’s hollow, favorite arguments about the Genocide issue. To appease angered Turks, he offered to host a group of representatives from both sides “to study” the issue, as if anything else was left to study, after the recognition of the Genocide by 20 nations, and after the numerous statements by internationally-recognized Genocide scholars.

Another political storm is brewing across the Mediterranean in Algeria. When the Turkish prime minister accused France of committing “genocide” against Algerians during the colonial war, that country’s prime minister, Ahmed Ouyahia, responded that “nobody has the right to make the blood of Algerians their business.”

In all this turmoil, pitting parties and countries against each other, a small voice has also been heard in the Istanbul patriarchate. Turks push forward the hostage Armenian Patriarchate in Istanbul. On behalf of the Patriarchate Archbishop Aram Ateshian has stated that the problem should be addressed within Turkey, and Armenians are “in favor of solving our problems with our [Turkish] state,” adding that “second hands, arms and opinions should not interfere with the issue.”

Of course nothing else could be expected from the poor cleric, who himself is a political pawn. He certainly cannot speak on behalf of all Armenians, because the Genocide and the murder of 1.5 million Armenian souls is not a parochial issue in an Istanbul neighborhood. The Turkish government supported Ateshian’s candidacy to succeed Archbishop Mesrob Mutafian, who was used and abused by the Turkish state for its political ends and now he is rendered a shadow of his former self. The state support for Ateshian is paying its political dividends today.

While we understand the archbishop’s predicament, a non-statement on the issue would have been much more powerful. One of his predecessors, His Beatitude Archbishop Shnork Kalousdian, kept a low profile during the reign of the harshest political dictatorship in Turkey thus did not provide anti-Armenian ammunition to the Turkish state to be used against the world Armenian community.

While denying the right to Archbishop Ateshian to speak on behalf of all Armenians, we understand that any responsible community leader has to bear in mind that the Turkish state can unleash a September 6 massacre anytime.

Returning to the French Senate vote, it looks like the bill has gained momentum, but nothing is certain until it is done. The French have treated Armenians in a cavalier manner many times in history. Sarkozy himself is known to turn against his closest allies, driven by political expediency. We hope this time around, political expediency moves him in the right direction.”