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WHEN FREE COUNTRIES BAN OPINION, THEY'RE NOT FREE
National Post
http://www.nationalpost.com/opinion/columnists/When+free+countries+opinion+they+free/5917001/story.html
Dec 28 2011
Canada
With the European Union in crisis mode, Iran conducting naval exercises
in the Persian Gulf and a morose youth toying with the Hermit Kingdom's
nuclear button in the Far East, you'd think France has enough on its
plate without picking a fight with Turkey over history. That's what
you'd think - but you'd be wrong.
Last Thursday, France's National Assembly voted for a law that would
imprison and fine anyone who denied that the atrocities against
Armenians committed by the Ottoman authorities in Turkey 100 years
ago amounted to genocide.
By Friday all hell broke loose. Turkey's ambassador left Paris.
Political visits between the two countries are suspended. The two
NATO allies aren't talking to each other, but they have plenty to
say to the press.
"We have been accused of genocide! How could we not overreact?"
demanded Turkish ambassador Tahsin Burcuoglu before boarding his
plane. He wasn't trying to be funny. Turkish Prime Minister Recep
Tayyip Erdogan went directly to the heart of the matter, demonstrating
that "genocide" was a game at which two could play:
"France massacred an estimated 15% of the Algerian population starting
from 1945. This is genocide," he said.
French President Nicolas Sarkozy couldn't muster much more in reply
from Prague, where he was attending former Czech leader Vaclav Havel's
funeral, than a sentence whose second half was true: "France does
not lecture anyone but France doesn't want to be lectured."
Only Armenian Foreign Minister Edward Nalbandian seemed happy. "Once
again," he said, "[France] proved its commitment to universal human
values."
Hmm. Maybe France did so 10 years ago, in 2001, when it took the
official position that Turkish atrocities against Armenians in 1915
amounted to genocide, but last week, when French deputies initiated
a process to jail everyone who disagreed, France only proved its
commitment to universal human myopia.
Viewing the atrocities committed against Turkey's Armenian minority in
1915 as genocide was defensible historically - and even if it hadn't
been, France would have been entitled to view them as it pleased.
Nations, like individuals, aren't obliged to pass tests of accuracy
to hold historical views. In this case, though, France could in all
likelihood have passed a test of accuracy for a bonus.
Last Thursday the French National Assembly went a giant step further.
The deputies proposed a law that, if the Senate approves it, will
make France's official view everyone's obligatory view.
Criminalizing contrary opinion doesn't illustrate France's commitment
to universal human values. If it illustrates anything historically
French, it's the guillotine and the Reign of Terror. But what it
really illustrates is President Sarkozy's willingness to trade his
country's tradition of liberty for a perceived electoral advantage.
There are an estimated half-million French voters of Armenian descent.
What France did in 2001 was compatible with a free society. Whether
or not countries need to have "official" designations for historical
events, many do. America recollects Pearl Harbor as "A Day of Infamy,"
which it was. Some recollections are undisputed; others aren't. In
any event, to murder and dislocate an estimated one million human
beings, as the Ottoman authorities did, may be fairly described as
genocide, even if it irks the Turks - and even if some Armenians did,
in fact, side with the Russian invaders as the First World War began,
as Turkish apologists assert they did.
Being entitled and even justified to view Turkish atrocities against
Armenians in 1915 as genocidal, however, doesn't add up to a licence to
de-legitimize other views. There can be no crime called genocide-denial
in a free society because when such a crime appears in the law books
the society is no longer free.
Saying this upsets some people. Does it apply, they ask, even to
Holocaust deniers, or to members of the Flat Earth Society? I'm afraid
so. Well, cannot free societies outlaw demonstrable error? Not if
they want to remain free. Is freedom worth it, in this case? Yes,
sure. We don't outlaw the Flat Earth Society, yet we keep launching
space vehicles. Very few people think the Earth is flat.
Like the President of France, I believe the atrocities committed
against the Armenians in Turkey nearly 100 years ago amounted to
genocide. Unlike the President of France, I don't think it's necessary
to jail people who say otherwise. For one thing, I don't think it
should be a punishable offence; for another, cooperation within NATO
seems to me far more important. Those who are too preoccupied with
the last atrocity, risk walking headlong into the next one.
I suspect France's foreign minister, Alain Juppe, would agree with me
about this particular point more than he does with his boss. Juppe
told the press that the vote on the genocide law had been "badly
timed." It sounded like a gigantic understatement.
From: Baghdasarian
National Post
http://www.nationalpost.com/opinion/columnists/When+free+countries+opinion+they+free/5917001/story.html
Dec 28 2011
Canada
With the European Union in crisis mode, Iran conducting naval exercises
in the Persian Gulf and a morose youth toying with the Hermit Kingdom's
nuclear button in the Far East, you'd think France has enough on its
plate without picking a fight with Turkey over history. That's what
you'd think - but you'd be wrong.
Last Thursday, France's National Assembly voted for a law that would
imprison and fine anyone who denied that the atrocities against
Armenians committed by the Ottoman authorities in Turkey 100 years
ago amounted to genocide.
By Friday all hell broke loose. Turkey's ambassador left Paris.
Political visits between the two countries are suspended. The two
NATO allies aren't talking to each other, but they have plenty to
say to the press.
"We have been accused of genocide! How could we not overreact?"
demanded Turkish ambassador Tahsin Burcuoglu before boarding his
plane. He wasn't trying to be funny. Turkish Prime Minister Recep
Tayyip Erdogan went directly to the heart of the matter, demonstrating
that "genocide" was a game at which two could play:
"France massacred an estimated 15% of the Algerian population starting
from 1945. This is genocide," he said.
French President Nicolas Sarkozy couldn't muster much more in reply
from Prague, where he was attending former Czech leader Vaclav Havel's
funeral, than a sentence whose second half was true: "France does
not lecture anyone but France doesn't want to be lectured."
Only Armenian Foreign Minister Edward Nalbandian seemed happy. "Once
again," he said, "[France] proved its commitment to universal human
values."
Hmm. Maybe France did so 10 years ago, in 2001, when it took the
official position that Turkish atrocities against Armenians in 1915
amounted to genocide, but last week, when French deputies initiated
a process to jail everyone who disagreed, France only proved its
commitment to universal human myopia.
Viewing the atrocities committed against Turkey's Armenian minority in
1915 as genocide was defensible historically - and even if it hadn't
been, France would have been entitled to view them as it pleased.
Nations, like individuals, aren't obliged to pass tests of accuracy
to hold historical views. In this case, though, France could in all
likelihood have passed a test of accuracy for a bonus.
Last Thursday the French National Assembly went a giant step further.
The deputies proposed a law that, if the Senate approves it, will
make France's official view everyone's obligatory view.
Criminalizing contrary opinion doesn't illustrate France's commitment
to universal human values. If it illustrates anything historically
French, it's the guillotine and the Reign of Terror. But what it
really illustrates is President Sarkozy's willingness to trade his
country's tradition of liberty for a perceived electoral advantage.
There are an estimated half-million French voters of Armenian descent.
What France did in 2001 was compatible with a free society. Whether
or not countries need to have "official" designations for historical
events, many do. America recollects Pearl Harbor as "A Day of Infamy,"
which it was. Some recollections are undisputed; others aren't. In
any event, to murder and dislocate an estimated one million human
beings, as the Ottoman authorities did, may be fairly described as
genocide, even if it irks the Turks - and even if some Armenians did,
in fact, side with the Russian invaders as the First World War began,
as Turkish apologists assert they did.
Being entitled and even justified to view Turkish atrocities against
Armenians in 1915 as genocidal, however, doesn't add up to a licence to
de-legitimize other views. There can be no crime called genocide-denial
in a free society because when such a crime appears in the law books
the society is no longer free.
Saying this upsets some people. Does it apply, they ask, even to
Holocaust deniers, or to members of the Flat Earth Society? I'm afraid
so. Well, cannot free societies outlaw demonstrable error? Not if
they want to remain free. Is freedom worth it, in this case? Yes,
sure. We don't outlaw the Flat Earth Society, yet we keep launching
space vehicles. Very few people think the Earth is flat.
Like the President of France, I believe the atrocities committed
against the Armenians in Turkey nearly 100 years ago amounted to
genocide. Unlike the President of France, I don't think it's necessary
to jail people who say otherwise. For one thing, I don't think it
should be a punishable offence; for another, cooperation within NATO
seems to me far more important. Those who are too preoccupied with
the last atrocity, risk walking headlong into the next one.
I suspect France's foreign minister, Alain Juppe, would agree with me
about this particular point more than he does with his boss. Juppe
told the press that the vote on the genocide law had been "badly
timed." It sounded like a gigantic understatement.
From: Baghdasarian