Armenian Weekly April 2012 Magazine

Sassounian
its logical conclusion by setting a penalty
for all those who break that law.
After several years of lobbying, the
French-Armenian community finally succeeded
in getting the French Parliament to
adopt a bill, in 2006, that set a penalty of
one-year imprisonment and a 45,000 euro
($60,000) fine for denying the Armenian
Genocide.
To become law, this bill had to also be
approved by the French Senate. President
Nicolas Sarkozy, however, just like someone
in the White House, did not keep his promise
to his Armenian constituents and
blocked its adoption by the French Senate.
A second attempt failed in the Senate in
May 2011.
New developments in late 2011, however,
came to breathe new life into this bill.
In October 2011, Sarkozy visited the
three Caucasus republics. It was obvious
that something had changed in the French
president’s outlook on the Armenian Genocide
bill. He spent only a couple of hours in
Azerbaijan and Georgia, while staying
overnight in Armenia.
Sarkozy also made powerful pro-
Armenian remarks while in Yerevan. He
warned Turkey that he would take additional
steps, meaning that he would support
the bill criminalizing genocide denial,
if Ankara did not recognize the Armenian
Genocide in a couple of months.
No one really knows what prompted
Sarkozy to change his position on this issue.
World-famous French-Armenian singer
Charles Aznavour had recently blasted
Sarkozy for not keeping his promise to
Armenians, warning him that no Armenian
would vote for him in the April 2012 presidential
elections. However, those who think
that Sarkozy supported the genocide bill to
win the votes of 500,000 French-Armenians
in the elections are sadly mistaken. To begin
with, the 500,000 figure is grossly exaggerated;
there are only around 400,000
Armenians in France. And many of them
cannot vote, either because they are recent
immigrants from Armenia or are under the
legal voting age. That leaves at most
100,000 eligible French-Armenian voters.
Since the Armenian National Committee
Sarkozy also made
powerful pro-Armenian
remarks while in
Yerevan. He warned
Turkey that he would
take additional steps,
meaning that he would
support the bill
criminalizing genocide
denial, if Ankara did not
recognize the Armenian
Genocide in a couple
of months.
(ANC) of France has already endorsed
Francois Hollande, the leader of the
Socialist Party and Sarkozy’s rival in the
presidential election, Sarkozy would likely
not get more than 50,000 Armenian votes.
Can anyone honestly believe that the
president of a major country like France,
just before the presidential elections, would:
1) carelessly risk billions of dollars of
trade with Turkey during such tough economic
times?
2) create a major confrontation with
Turkey, a fellow NATO member?
3) antagonize French exporters, the military
establishment, members of the media,
and influential intellectuals who oppose
restrictions of any kind on their ability to
express controversial opinions?
This is all highly unlikely for a mere
50,000 Armenian votes, out of the millions
of French votes to be cast, especially when
there are at least as many Turkish voters as
Armenian ones among the 500,000 recent
Turkish immigrants to France.
There may be other reasons why
Sarkozy supported the Armenian bill, such
as his long-standing opposition to Turkey
joining the European Union (EU), and his
intent to win the votes of millions of
French citizens who are antagonistic to
Turks, Muslims, and foreigners in general.
Just to be a little charitable to Sarkozy,
let’s also assume that he wanted to keep his
campaign promise, at long last.
In my opinion, there are three main reasons
why, in late 2011, the Armenian bill
got a new boost: The first is Sarkozy’s unexpected
support for the bill. The second is
the support of Francois Hollande, the
Socialist presidential candidate. Significantly,
the Socialist Party won the majority
of seats in the Senate in last September’s
elections. Thus, for the first time, the two
largest political parties in the French legislature,
and the two leading presidential
candidates, supported the genocide bill.
The third reason is the decision of the
European Union in 2008 to have all 26-
member countries adopt laws that punish
racism, xenophobia, denial of genocide,
crimes against humanity, and war crimes.
Based on this new EU initiative, Valerie
Boyer, a French Parliamentary member,
proposed a new law that would ban denial
of all genocides recognized by France, without
specifically mentioning the Armenian
Genocide. But, since France only officially
recognizes two genocides—the Jewish
Holocaust and the Armenian Genocide—
and Holocaust denial is already banned, the
new law would effectively ban denial of the
Armenian Genocide.
Notice how, once again, the text of this
proposed law does not mention Turks or
Turkey, nor even the Armenian Genocide.
Nevertheless, Turkish officials went into
overdrive with their usual threats, pressures,
and insults, identifying themselves as
perpetrators of the Armenian Genocide.
The Turks’ bullying tactics, however, did
not scare off the legislators. On Dec. 22,
2011, the French Parliament voted to
approve the genocide bill.
Turkey once again withdrew its ambassador
from Paris, only to return him after a
couple of weeks. A month later, despite more
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| THE ARMENIAN WEEKLY | April 2012