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ANKARA: The French Definition of 'Genocide'

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  • ANKARA: The French Definition of 'Genocide'

    Zaman, Turkey
    Oct 19 2006

    The French Definition of 'Genocide'
    COMMENTARY
    by Prof. Dr. Ali Al-Hail

    No one, I suppose, would disagree with the French parliamentary
    minority Socialist MPs' definition of genocide as "the organized
    killing of a people to end their collective existence."

    However, these MP's, whose parliament building overlooks the Seine
    river, seem to have a short memory about the Seine river graveyard.

    Thousands of Algerians were reported to have been thrown into the
    river, and left to be drowned during the late 20th century (Ahmed
    Bin Billa, al-Jazeera TV, 2004). Isn't that 'genocide,' an "organized
    killing of a people to end their collective existence?"

    The minority Socialist MPs, whose country traditionally favors art,
    literature, theatre and poetry, should remember that those who
    live in glass houses shouldn't throw stones. Beginning with banning
    the hijab (a woman's head scarf) in public places and schools, to
    satirizing the Prophet of mercy for all humanity, Mohammed (pbuh),
    to more recently considering any denial of the Armenian 'genocide',
    as a crime, the French National Assembly, who the Statue of Liberty
    to the United States, appears to have lots of memory lapses.

    Long before the notorious alleged Armenian 'genocide' took place in
    Turkey in 1915, the brutal and barbaric colonization by the French
    constituted numerous genocides against the Algerians, both inside
    Algeria and in France itself, from 1832 to 1962, when the Algerians
    eventually achieved their independence. About seven million Algerians
    were killed during French colonization in Algeria while resisting
    French occupation (President Ahmed Bin Billa, al-Jazeera TV, 2004).

    Despite requests and appeals from the Algerian president, Butaflieqa
    recently publicly asked France to apologize for its horrendous
    'genocides' in Algeria. France has not yet responded.

    Although many Turks, including influential thinkers and politicians,
    will not deny that hundreds of thousands of Armenians were killed in
    1915 during a relocation arrangement to other parts of the Ottoman
    Empire, the issue of a 'genocide' was reported to have been conceived
    as highly controversial. Some argue that those Armenians who died were
    caught amid inter-communal warfare. Thus, it was not "the organized
    killing of a people to end their collective existence."

    In other words, it was not a 'genocide.' A few others in Turkey and
    beyond, however, would argue that it was conscious, and as such it was
    a 'genocide.' Despite worldwide contentious differentiation regarding
    the event, Socialists in the French Assembly National, apparently
    for election reasons, are determined to legalize their mind-set.

    Many in France make the case that sheer politics are behind the
    minority Socialists initiative. As such, there are no ethics, good
    merits, or otherwise genuine concerns about the Armenian 'genocide.'
    The minority Socialists, by proposing such a bill in order to push
    for a law criminalizing denial of an Armenian genocide, aim to gain
    Armenian votes during next year's presidential elections.

    One presumes, as do many, that the minority Socialists also aim
    to spread anti-Turkish sentiment in order to make it impossible
    for Turkey, as a predominantly Muslim country, to join the European
    Union. That Turkey already has an appointment from the European Union
    for 2010 to negotiate its membership must be kept in mind.

    Since there are more or less six million Arabs in France, mainly
    from Algeria and other north African countries, this would be an
    opportunistic moment for the Socialists in France to push for a
    law that considers Israeli occupation forces killings in Gaza and
    other Palestinian lands as 'genocide.' Approximately 750 Palestinian
    civilians, including women and children, were killed by the Israeli
    occupation forces since Jan. 25, since Hamas was voted into office
    democratically. More than 3,000 civilians, including women and
    children, have been either injured or maimed since then.

    Additionally, nearly 4,000 civilians, again including women and
    children, were arrested. If these killings are not genocide, what
    can genocide be? Isn't this an "organized killing of a people to end
    their collective existence?"

    Instead of crying over controversial history, without, of course,
    endorsing genocides against any human race, genocides in Palestine
    are clearly committed daily by Israeli occupation forces, which escape
    controversy and global documentation by satellite cameras, including
    French TV, the press and media. Had the French Socialists been sincere
    about human suffering, they would have assuredly considered Israeli
    'genocides' against Palestinians since as early as 1948 as real
    'genocides.' In addition, this would certainly bring them at least
    three million votes by Arab French.
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