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World Socialist Web Site
Dec 30 2011
France prepares ban on denying a Turkish genocide of Armenians
By F. Dubois
30 December 2011
The National Assembly's passage on December 22 of a law banning the
public denial of the Armenian genocide has provoked a major diplomatic
crisis between France and Turkey. In the days before the vote on the
law, the Turkish government tried to exert pressure to prevent the
vote, and reacted forcefully once the law was passed.
The Turkish state forbids the use of the term genocide to characterise
the massacres of Armenians perpetrated in 1915 on the territory of the
former Ottoman Empire.
The infringement of the new French law now carries the penalty of a
year in prison and a 45,000 fine.
The initiative for this law came from President Nicolas Sarkozy's
government. During a visit to the Armenian capital Erevan in October,
he publicly pressed for the recognition of the Armenian genocide,
since `denial was not acceptable.' Valérie Boyer, a deputy of the
ruling UMP (Union for a Popular Movement) for a Marseille constituency
with a large Armenian community, then proposed a bill on behalf of the
government.
Most of the deputies were not present for the debate before the vote.
The law was finally only voted on by some 50 majority and opposition
deputies, out of 577, with about 10 from both sides voting against.
The Socialist Party (PS) and the Communist Party (PCF) voted with the
government in favour of the law, which, in fact, is a reprise of a
similar law passed by the National Assembly in 2006, which the UMP and
the government then opposed.
Historians who had already opposed such a law, again expressed their
hostility to the present law. In particular, they are worried that it
represents an attack on freedom of enquiry and freedom of speech, and
oppose giving the state the right to gag historians. The French
historian Pierre Nora, who opposes the voting of the law, in the name
of historians' freedom, is quoted in Le Monde.
The law is deeply reactionary. It allows French imperialism to
hypocritically set itself up as a moral authority as it carries out a
military offensive in the Muslim world - with wars in Libya and in
Afghanistan, and an on-going intervention in Syria carried out with
the US and Turkey. It also facilitates dividing the working class
along ethnic lines, while giving the state anti-democratic censorship
powers.
One of Sarkozy's more or less openly admitted motivations, in the
context of the campaign for the presidential election in April and May
2012, was to attract the Armenian vote.
Sarkozy is seeking re-election, as his government becomes ever more
unpopular. His inability to provide any solution to the economic
crisis and his repeated attacks on living standards, jobs and civil
rights as well as his defence of finance capital have provoked
hostility in the majority of the population. He is led in the polls by
the PS, and the neo-fascist National Front is close behind.
Sarkozy has systematically opposed the entry of Turkey into the
European Union (EU). The issue of the denial of the genocide, which
the new law penalises and puts at the same level as the Shoah, serves
as a further obstacle to Turkey's membership of the EU.
As the former UMP minister and vehement supporter of the law, Patrick
Devidjan, admitted: `It's a political act: just when Turkey wants to
join the European Union, and appear to be a country which defends
human rights, this law helps to reveal the attitude of Turkey on the
international arena and clearly shows that Turkey is not the country
of human rights.'
The announcement of the vote set off a major diplomatic crisis with
Turkey. The Turkish government and media reacted aggressively to the
vote. Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan threatened France
with economic and political sanctions, the freezing of military
cooperation, and diplomatic isolation in the Middle East.
Sarkozy's initiative provoked incredulity and anger among many
bourgeois politicians, even within his own government. Foreign
Minister Alain Juppé (UMP) was quoted in the weekly Marianne saying:
`This bill is intellectually, economically and diplomatically
bullsh*t. We're not going to get into a genocide competition. All that
just to get the votes of Frenchmen of Armenian extraction. It's
ridiculous!'
Another rival presidential candidate, Dominique de Villepin, a former
prime minister who left the UMP in February 2011, has called the
voting of the law an `error.' On December 25 on Europe 1 radio
station, he warned: `Let's be prudent. We are opening up disputes
which will push us backwards and not forwards.'
That a section of big business should express its misgivings publicly
is not surprising. The past five years have seen a noticeable
rapprochement of France with Turkey, and a strong increase of French
investment in the country. Turkey has become an important export
market. France, which has 11.5 billion direct investments in Turkey,
sold 6.3 billion worth of exports there and bought 5.4 billion worth
of imports in 2010.
French car makers have 20 percent share of the Turkish market, and
French banks have obtain significant interest income there.
At a time when French imperialism is intervening in Syria, where it
partially depends on Turkey for assistance, Sarkozy's initiative seems
very ill-chosen for large sections of the French bourgeoisie.
France has established close collaboration with Turkey in order to
intervene in the civil war which is developing between the Alawite
regime of Assad and the imperialist-backed Syrian National Council and
the Free Syrian Army. This imperialist intervention in Syria must be
seen in the broader context of a political, and potentially military,
imperialist confrontation with Iran throughout the Middle East.
Ever more pressing demands for a military intervention in Syria by the
imperialist powers, including France, are being expressed. Some days
ago, Bernard Valero, spokesman for the Foreign Office called on the
United Nations Security Council to vote `a firm resolution which
demands the end of the repression.'
According to the French satirical weekly Le Canard Enchaîné, and the
Turkish daily Milliyet, the Free Syrian Army is trained by British
soldiers and French intelligences service agents. For weeks the FSA
has been calling for `foreign air strikes' (according to Le Monde of
November 24). France has committed itself to the establishment of a
`buffer zone' between Turkey and Syria.
The French Senate must now debate the bill voted by the National
Assembly. The UMP Senator Roger Karoutchi pointed out yesterday that
it had not yet been written into the Senate timetable, adding that it
made him `uncomfortable'. According to Karoutchi, the Senate could
decide to place bill on the agenda for January 10, which would mean
that the Senate would debate it in February.
Zeynep Necipoglu of the French Chamber of Commerce in Turkey (CCFT)
has announced that the CCFT would carry out `a determined campaign
with the senators to make them aware.... of the great amount of damage
that [this initiative] is likely to cause.' According to the CCFT,
this could enable the French political establishment to `act in order
for the bill to be voted down in the Senate.'
http://www.wsws.org/articles/2011/dec2011/arme-d30.shtml
Dec 30 2011
France prepares ban on denying a Turkish genocide of Armenians
By F. Dubois
30 December 2011
The National Assembly's passage on December 22 of a law banning the
public denial of the Armenian genocide has provoked a major diplomatic
crisis between France and Turkey. In the days before the vote on the
law, the Turkish government tried to exert pressure to prevent the
vote, and reacted forcefully once the law was passed.
The Turkish state forbids the use of the term genocide to characterise
the massacres of Armenians perpetrated in 1915 on the territory of the
former Ottoman Empire.
The infringement of the new French law now carries the penalty of a
year in prison and a 45,000 fine.
The initiative for this law came from President Nicolas Sarkozy's
government. During a visit to the Armenian capital Erevan in October,
he publicly pressed for the recognition of the Armenian genocide,
since `denial was not acceptable.' Valérie Boyer, a deputy of the
ruling UMP (Union for a Popular Movement) for a Marseille constituency
with a large Armenian community, then proposed a bill on behalf of the
government.
Most of the deputies were not present for the debate before the vote.
The law was finally only voted on by some 50 majority and opposition
deputies, out of 577, with about 10 from both sides voting against.
The Socialist Party (PS) and the Communist Party (PCF) voted with the
government in favour of the law, which, in fact, is a reprise of a
similar law passed by the National Assembly in 2006, which the UMP and
the government then opposed.
Historians who had already opposed such a law, again expressed their
hostility to the present law. In particular, they are worried that it
represents an attack on freedom of enquiry and freedom of speech, and
oppose giving the state the right to gag historians. The French
historian Pierre Nora, who opposes the voting of the law, in the name
of historians' freedom, is quoted in Le Monde.
The law is deeply reactionary. It allows French imperialism to
hypocritically set itself up as a moral authority as it carries out a
military offensive in the Muslim world - with wars in Libya and in
Afghanistan, and an on-going intervention in Syria carried out with
the US and Turkey. It also facilitates dividing the working class
along ethnic lines, while giving the state anti-democratic censorship
powers.
One of Sarkozy's more or less openly admitted motivations, in the
context of the campaign for the presidential election in April and May
2012, was to attract the Armenian vote.
Sarkozy is seeking re-election, as his government becomes ever more
unpopular. His inability to provide any solution to the economic
crisis and his repeated attacks on living standards, jobs and civil
rights as well as his defence of finance capital have provoked
hostility in the majority of the population. He is led in the polls by
the PS, and the neo-fascist National Front is close behind.
Sarkozy has systematically opposed the entry of Turkey into the
European Union (EU). The issue of the denial of the genocide, which
the new law penalises and puts at the same level as the Shoah, serves
as a further obstacle to Turkey's membership of the EU.
As the former UMP minister and vehement supporter of the law, Patrick
Devidjan, admitted: `It's a political act: just when Turkey wants to
join the European Union, and appear to be a country which defends
human rights, this law helps to reveal the attitude of Turkey on the
international arena and clearly shows that Turkey is not the country
of human rights.'
The announcement of the vote set off a major diplomatic crisis with
Turkey. The Turkish government and media reacted aggressively to the
vote. Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan threatened France
with economic and political sanctions, the freezing of military
cooperation, and diplomatic isolation in the Middle East.
Sarkozy's initiative provoked incredulity and anger among many
bourgeois politicians, even within his own government. Foreign
Minister Alain Juppé (UMP) was quoted in the weekly Marianne saying:
`This bill is intellectually, economically and diplomatically
bullsh*t. We're not going to get into a genocide competition. All that
just to get the votes of Frenchmen of Armenian extraction. It's
ridiculous!'
Another rival presidential candidate, Dominique de Villepin, a former
prime minister who left the UMP in February 2011, has called the
voting of the law an `error.' On December 25 on Europe 1 radio
station, he warned: `Let's be prudent. We are opening up disputes
which will push us backwards and not forwards.'
That a section of big business should express its misgivings publicly
is not surprising. The past five years have seen a noticeable
rapprochement of France with Turkey, and a strong increase of French
investment in the country. Turkey has become an important export
market. France, which has 11.5 billion direct investments in Turkey,
sold 6.3 billion worth of exports there and bought 5.4 billion worth
of imports in 2010.
French car makers have 20 percent share of the Turkish market, and
French banks have obtain significant interest income there.
At a time when French imperialism is intervening in Syria, where it
partially depends on Turkey for assistance, Sarkozy's initiative seems
very ill-chosen for large sections of the French bourgeoisie.
France has established close collaboration with Turkey in order to
intervene in the civil war which is developing between the Alawite
regime of Assad and the imperialist-backed Syrian National Council and
the Free Syrian Army. This imperialist intervention in Syria must be
seen in the broader context of a political, and potentially military,
imperialist confrontation with Iran throughout the Middle East.
Ever more pressing demands for a military intervention in Syria by the
imperialist powers, including France, are being expressed. Some days
ago, Bernard Valero, spokesman for the Foreign Office called on the
United Nations Security Council to vote `a firm resolution which
demands the end of the repression.'
According to the French satirical weekly Le Canard Enchaîné, and the
Turkish daily Milliyet, the Free Syrian Army is trained by British
soldiers and French intelligences service agents. For weeks the FSA
has been calling for `foreign air strikes' (according to Le Monde of
November 24). France has committed itself to the establishment of a
`buffer zone' between Turkey and Syria.
The French Senate must now debate the bill voted by the National
Assembly. The UMP Senator Roger Karoutchi pointed out yesterday that
it had not yet been written into the Senate timetable, adding that it
made him `uncomfortable'. According to Karoutchi, the Senate could
decide to place bill on the agenda for January 10, which would mean
that the Senate would debate it in February.
Zeynep Necipoglu of the French Chamber of Commerce in Turkey (CCFT)
has announced that the CCFT would carry out `a determined campaign
with the senators to make them aware.... of the great amount of damage
that [this initiative] is likely to cause.' According to the CCFT,
this could enable the French political establishment to `act in order
for the bill to be voted down in the Senate.'
http://www.wsws.org/articles/2011/dec2011/arme-d30.shtml