France Rejects Genocide Bill

[Gavur]

Patrick Devedjian: Genocide Is Not Only A Historic Fact But Also A Legal Notion









French-Armenian politician Patrick Devedjian, deputy of the Union for Popular Movement and adviser of interior minister Nicola Sarkozy, dubbed "comedy" the May 18 session of the French parliament that discussed a draft law on criminalizing Armenian Genocide denial. Below we present his interview with Le Figaro:

- Mr. Devedjian, are the results of the parliamentary discussions surprising to you?

- I did not think they would dare to go that far. The aim of the comedy that we witnessed was to prolong the discussions not to put the draft for discussion. This game was organized by the socialists’ spearhead and part of the rightists acting apparently on demand. This is a disaster for the parliament where seems to be a ban on discussing concerns facing the French.

- The government also pressed arguments to justify its opposition.

- The foreign minister was the government’s representative. He explained that Turkey should not be distressed by adopting this bill. I am astonished over his arguments on trade relations, which is not only immoral but also wrong. Should I say that around 1.5 million people fell victim to the Armenian Genocide? Besides, the market economy is no subject to Ankara’s orders. Turkey threatened with sanctions. But the next year our export to Turkey rose by 32 percent.

- What will you tell historians opposing the draft?

- History is not the historian’s manor. Genocide is not only a historic truth but also a legal notion that is defined in the French Penal Code. The parliament is entitled to deal with legal issues. Nevertheless, I stand for free historic debates. The issue that we discuss today is the shameful Turkish denialism in France. The legislative power’s interference is necessary to avoid clashed between communities.

http://www.azg.am/?lang=EN&num=2006052302

[Gavur]

Jewish Students Condemn French Parliamentarians

AZG Armenian Daily #104, 07/06/2006

According to "Paris Updated" website, the Union of Jewish Students of France strongly condemned the French parliamentarians for their May 18 decision to postpone the discussion of the draft law that punishes the genocide denials by criminal prosecution. "The excuse for the probable consequences of Turkey’s political and economic sanctions hurts the memory of the 1,5 million of Armenians massacred in the Armenian Genocide in 1915," stated the representatives of the union at the press conference. They added that "registering the truth and moral duty are no primary issues for the country’s political leaders."

The French branches of other Jewish organizations, particularly, "Crifi" and "Bney Briti" demanded that the Armenian Genocide and the genocide in Rwanda should be acknowledged as crimes equal to Holocaust.

"Certainly, this is a very complicated issue, as it concerns the relations of Turkey with France and Israel. But we will remain by the side of the Armenian people until the full recognition of the Armenian Genocide," the "Bney Briti" representatives stated.

[Hovik]

Holocaust fine for French railway

(Remember the Baghdad Railway? You're next Turkey )

Holocaust fine for French railway

A French court has fined the state railway operator for its role in the deportation of Jews during World War II.

http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/47B3ED57-15FD-4660-88B7-0777B0E09CB9.htm

[Hovik]

Armenian Historian Advises France to Start First with Algeria and Rwanda

This might be an interesting article for those Turks who keep xxxxxing about France recognizing the Armenian Genocide while denying the Algerian... especially when the fact that the source here being an Armenian is considered...

Armenian Historian Advises France to Start First with Algeria and Rwanda
By Selcuk Gultasli, Brussels
Published: Thursday, May 11, 2006
zaman.com


Armenian-origin British historian Ara Sarafian, criticising the French draft law that will punish the deniers of the Armenian “genocide,” said France should first start with its role in Algeria and Rwanda. Sarafian, the Director of the Gomidas Institute in London, the publisher of many western primary sources on the Armenian “Genocide”, as well as the editor of the critical edition of the 1916 British Parliamentary Blue Book, is vehemently against the French draft. Despite the fact that he subscribes to the Armenian “Genocide” thesis; Sarafian thinks the draft law may halt the blossoming debate in Turkey on what happened in 1915.

Sarafian, who attended the recent Istanbul University Symposium on the future of Turkish Armenian relations despite the stern warnings of the Armenian Diaspora, had worked in the Turkish archives only to be expelled. He has now once again received permission “without any preconditions” to study the Turkish archives.

The following is the full text of his remarks in response to our questions about the proposed draft law:

The Armenian issue has become a political issue between two contending camps, Turkish nationalists (and successive Turkish governments) on the one hand, and Armenian nationalists on the other. Because Turkish governments have until recently denied that there was an Armenian issue to be addressed, or explained that the issue was the product of "Armenian terrorism" (1970s and 80s), or unfortunate events of mutual communal carnage, they also set the ground rules of how this issue would be addressed i.e. in terms of power politics. They thus nurtured and empowered the radical Armenian nationalist camps we see today.

Armenian nationalists are now playing the game by the same rules, and they have recently found themselves in a powerful position because of Turkey's accession talks for EU membership. They have aligned the Armenian issue in two somewhat contradictory camps, where the Armenian issue is used as a yardstick to measure Turkey's ability to come to terms with its past, and in doing so, its ability to adopt a new political trajectory that reflects core values adopted by the European Union; and at the same time, the Armenian issue is used to give substance to racists, xenophobes and anti-Islamicists who do not want Turkey to enter the European Union.

The prospective French law is part of an unfortunate power dynamic, and whether it passes or not, the final outcome will be the result of power politics. It is ironic that the French legislature, with its own past in Algeria and Rwanda, is willing to go down this path.

Perhaps the real tragedy is that the current Turkish government has taken important steps to resolve the Armenian issue. After all, it has "uncensored" the Armenian debate in Turkey by allowing it to be discussed openly, letting Turkish nationalist institutions, such as the Turkish Historical Society, to fend for themselves in the open arena. It is true that the debate is unequal. There are still draconian laws that are invoked against dissidents, and most TV stations still espouse the anti-Armenian line, but there is still a significant shift towards open debate. Not all TV stations programmes espouse the state perspective, many newspapers and publications discuss the Armenian issue more openly, and many court cases against dissenters are quashed within Turkish legal system.

There are already many Turks and Kurds who have entered this debate in a critical manner, and they have critical audiences who want to know the truth. All of this is to Turkey's credit and there is every prospect that the Armenian issue will be resolved in a peaceful manner in the near future.

It is unfortunate that, if the prospective French law is passed, it could lead to a souring of relations between Turkey and the EU, as well as a right-wing backlash within Turkey and its own democratization process. Such a scenario will suit the interest of the two nationalist camps, which will remain part of the problem and not the solution.

I hope, irrespective of what happens in Paris in the next few weeks, we do not lose the perspective of what is important. Today we have the opportunity of resolving the Armenian issue in a peaceful and meaningful fashion, based on the truth, and the dignity of the descendants of the people concerned. Europeans should help and judge Turkey and Armenians on how they progress down this road. The current proposed legislation in Paris is a detraction at best, and a hindrance at worse.

[Gavur]

Armenian genocide: 4 UMP deputies ask for the re-examination of the bill

Friday June 30, 2006, Stéphane/armenews

Patrick DEVEDJIAN

http://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=fr&u=http://www.armenews.com/article.php3%3Fid_article%3D22834&prev=/search%3Fq%3D%2BSait%2B%25C3%2587etino%25C4%259Flu,%2BHumanite%2B%26hl%3Den%26lr%3D%26sa%3DG

On the initiative of Philippe Pemezec, quatres appointed requires of the UMP group to register the law aiming at repressing the negation of the Armenian genocide in a forthcoming parliamentary niche.

A parliamentary “niche” is a public meeting of which the agenda is fixed by a political group.

In their official statement, appoint them UMP Philippe Pemezec (the Top-of-Seine), Patrick Devedjian (the Top-of-Seine), Nicolas Dupont-Aignan (the Essonne) and Roland Blum (Rhone delta) say himself “made indignant” by the “intrigues” having empéché the vote of this private bill last on May 18.

They specify that they want by their initiative “empécher that are not organized provocative demonstrations incentive with clashes on the own territory”, in reference to a demonstration in Lyon in March during which had been raised of the slogans negationnists pro-Turkish. “We include/understand fears perfectly that this penalization can cause. We also believe that “is not with the law to write the history”. Also historical research should be excluded of these continuations. What is really aimed, it is to prevent that are not organized of the provocative demonstrations incentive to clashes on the own territory " indicates the parliamentary quatres adding “such a law is in fact a need for civil peace and to avoid the republication of events like those from last March in Lyon. In addition, we can hope that this recognition will open the way with a true dialogue between Arménie and Turkey”.

On May 18, the examination by the Parliament of this socialist private bill had been stopped without being completed and its vote deferred sine die.

The UMP deputies and the government had done everything to delay DEBATEs, at the point to make impossible the vote of the proposal registered in a “niche” limited to 5 hours of debate.

The private bill aims at supplementing by a penal shutter the law of January 29, 2001 per which France recognizes the Armenian genocide. It makes negation of the genocide a punishable offence one year of imprisonment and 45.000 euros fine.

The Official statement

“Of the regrettable events the members of Parliament, last on May 18 prevented, to vote on the private bill tending to the incrimination of the negation of the Armenian genocide. Philippe Pemezec, Patrick Devedjian, Nicolas Dupont-Aignan like Roland Blum, made indignant by these intrigues, Co-have just signed a mail to the attention of the president of the group UMP, Bernard Accoyer, asking him to register this text within the framework of a forthcoming UMP niche.

In this mail, they denounce the gap in the law left by the law of July 29, 2001 since this one does not envisage a sanction in the event of negationnism.

“France officially and courageously recognized the act of genocide by the law of July 29, 2001. It was a political gesture extremely but with the null legal effects since no provision envisages the sanction of the negationnism as that is for example the case of Shoah with the law of July 13, 1990. Such a law is in fact a need for civil peace and to avoid the republication of events like those from last March in Lyon. In addition, we can hope that this recognition will open the way with a true dialogue between Arménie and Turkey” wrote these deputies.