20 Steps Turkey Could Take to Worsen Relations with France After Genocide Vote

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Turkey’s leaders have been threatening France for months with various reprisals should the French government pass a law making it illegal to deny the Armenian Genocide.
 
Ignoring Turkish threats and blackmail, the French Parliament adopted a bill on December 22, 2011, criminalizing denial of the Armenian Genocide. The Senate followed suit on January 23, 2012, with a vote of 127-86, after a 7-hour debate. The new law, to be signed soon by Pres. Sarkozy, carries a one year jail term and a fine of $60,000 for anyone denying the Armenian Genocide. Every single member of the French legislature, even those voting against the bill, stated that they had no doubt whatsoever about the facts of the Armenian Genocide.
 
The hour of truth has now arrived. One wonders if Turkey’s leaders have the courage to carry out their bombastic declarations. We would like to ask them two questions: 1) Are you all talk and no action or, as the saying goes, is your bark worse than your bite? 2) Will you be taking short-term face-saving measures or more serious and permanent steps?
 
Unlike a month ago, the Turkish public will not be satisfied if the Ambassador is withdrawn, only to be sent back in two weeks. Also, Turks may not be too impressed by Prime Minister Erdogan’s announcement that he would no longer visit Paris.
 
While Turkish officials are recovering from the shock of the French vote, we wish to offer some tips on how Turks can make a bad situation even worse. In its fury, the Turkish government may take retaliatory measures not only against France, but also all countries that have recognized the Armenian Genocide. Such extreme, irrational, and self-defeating actions would contribute to Turkey’s isolation and hurt its own interests. Below are suggested ideas on how Turkey could settle scores with France and other perceived adversaries:
 
1) Withdraw the Turkish Ambassador from France and do not send him back until the French government renounces its acknowledgment of the Armenian Genocide and the newly adopted French bill.
 
2) Expel the French Ambassador from Turkey and shut down the French Embassy.
 
3) Break all economic, military, cultural, and political ties with France.
 
4) Collect all French products such as chocolates and wines from store shelves throughout Turkey and dump them in the sewer; and ban French fries and French kissing!
 
5) Cancel all Turkish Airlines flights to French cities and do not allow Air France flights to Turkey. Place similar restrictions on French ships.
 
6) Prohibit teaching of French in Turkish schools and shut down private French schools in Turkey.
 
7) Forbid access to all French websites.
 
8) Discontinue Turkey’s efforts to join the European Union, in view of the expected submission of similar measures on genocide denial to all 26 EU member countries.
 
9) Cancel Turkey’s membership in the Council of Europe because in 1987 the European Parliament recognized the Armenian Genocide.
 
10) Withdraw from the United Nations because in 1985 the UN Human Rights Commission adopted a report recognizing the Armenian Genocide.
 
11) Ban all Turkish official visits to France.
 
12) Expel all French citizens from Turkey and demand that all Turkish citizens immediately leave the territory of France.
 
13) Do not allow French tourists and businessmen to enter Turkey.
 
14) Shut down French automobile factories in Turkey, causing the unemployment of thousands of Turkish workers.
 
15) Rename all French streets in Turkey to Algerian and North Korean names.
 
16) Adopt a resolution by the Turkish Parliament accusing France for the so-called Algerian “genocide.”
 
17) Deport all citizens of Armenia working illegally in Turkey. Deprive them of all food and water during their long march from Istanbul to Armenia or, even worse, to the Syrian desert!
 
18) Withdraw all private and public Turkish funds from French banks.
 
19) Blacklist all French books, movies, newspapers and TV programs in Turkey.
 
20) Arrest French citizens in Turkey in retaliation for Turks imprisoned in France for denying the Armenian Genocide.
 
The French Senate’s decision is part of the high price the Turkish government has been paying for the past 100 years for its persistent denial of the Armenian Genocide and the heinous crimes committed by its Ottoman predecessors. Until Turkey acknowledges its guilt and restores the Armenian lands and properties to the descendants of Genocide victims, it will continue to face serious challenges from other countries and will be denied a place in the family of civilized nations.

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4 responses to “20 Steps Turkey Could Take to Worsen Relations with France After Genocide Vote”

  1. 4Q2x Avatar
    4Q2x

    “…Until Turkey acknowledges its guilt and restores the Armenian lands…” What lands? Armenia can dream as much as it likes, having a handful of naricissitic dishonest French and other politicians is not going to get Armenia anywhere. I hope Harut the Barut remembers if the Turks in ONLY (not the world wide Turks) Turkey were to walk to the border and spit Armenia would drown in Turish saliva.

  2. Harut Sassounian Avatar
    Harut Sassounian

    You are right. You can spit all you want right now. But I can assure you that the time will come when there may not be anyone on these occupied lands who can spit or do anything else. That is when Armenians will simply walk in and recover their lands without spitting or firing a shot. It is hard to imagine such a scenario right now, but remember that you can not identify a single country on this planet that has had the same exact borders over the centuries. Even great empires have come and gone. Where is today the Roman Empire, the British Empire, and more appropriately, where is today the Ottoman Empire?
    If you are around in a couple of hundred years from now, we will take up this conversation once again and see who is right and who is wrong. Armenia is an ancient nation of several thousand millennia. It can afford to wait for another couple of hundred years. Can you guarantee that the Turkish borders will remain the same for ever? It has not stayed the same in the past. It won’t stay the same in the future!
    Let’s see who spits on who at the end.

  3. Nuri Pasha Avatar
    Nuri Pasha

    Well, Mr. Sassounian. I can agree that the borders are not static, they change from time to time, from century to century. So are the borders of Turkey. But what makes you so sure that the Turco-Armenian border will necessarily change in favor of the latter? Don’t you consider the possibility of changing it eastwards resulting in total disappearance of Armenia altogether (which it is close to anyway due to the massive Armenian exodus to Russia and elsewhere)? If we believe your fairy tales, once upon a time Armenia used to stretch from sea to sea (or shall we say, from ocean to ocean, from planet to planet?) Where is that mythic Armenia today? Help me to find it. I do not see it 
    Oh, sure, it vanished according to your theory of non-static borders.
    So, please do us a favor, do not rule out the scenario when Turkey walks into Irevan and not encounter any “millennia-old” aykanush or mkrtich to spit at  Because they all are gone to California, Marseilles and Siberia.
    In the meantime, work harder on your education, dude. The Council of Europe and the European Parliament are different organizations. The adoption of the 1987 resolution by the European Parliament (which, by the way, expired with the expiration of the mandate of the MPs who voted for it and is no longer effective unless it is reconfirmed every five years by every new team of MPs) has nothing to do with the Council of Europe. The European Parliament is only for the EU members, while the Council of Europe has even Armenia as a member. Also, Mr. Sassounian, go ahead and see what the Council of Europe’s Parliamentary Assembly (PACE) said in its 2005 resolution number 1416. I am afraid, it is Armenia that should withdraw in protest from the Council after this resolution.
    And don’t talk too much about the failed UN 1985 report, if you do not want to be ridiculed further. The report got stuck in the UN Human Rights Commission because the General Assembly harshly refused to include it in the agenda due to its controversy. So, it is the funeral of the failed resolution, not any reason for celebration. But you can celebrate.
    I like item 17 in your list most than anything else. Long overdue.
    Besides, I am amused with this: “Every single member of the French legislature, even those voting against the bill, stated that they had no doubt whatsoever about the facts of the Armenian Genocide”. Now, check this, Mr. Sassounian: every single member of the French parliament has no doubt whatsoever about the fact that food having been digested in the stomach and moved through the bowel turns into, and gets out of the body in the form of, excrement. It is an undeniable fact, and I doubt that any French MP has any doubt about this. Why do not we penalize and throw in jail anyone who dares deny this?
    But what is most amusing, Mr. Sassounian, is your hope to receive territorial and financial reparations from Turkey. Not bad. Considering that Armenian irregulars committed the first genocide of the 20th century – the one against Muslim civilians in the occupied territories of Anatolia behind Russian army’s bask – it is the right time to demand from Armenia to look honestly to its past, recognize the Turkish Genocide and cede some territories to Turkey (I like Echmiadzin) as a compensation for the barbarian act of genocide perpetrated by your ancestors, the descendants of Hye nomads who came to the Armenian Plateau from Thracia and Phrigie. Who, by the way, got a good lesson for all their crimes! Apparently, not the last one. So, see you soon 

  4. Harut Sassounian Avatar
    Harut Sassounian

    Your lengthy diatribe of insulting statements and misconstrued facts makes the best case why France is trying to pass a law on criminalizing genocide denial. This law is exactly for people like you who do not have the decency to face the facts and not insult the descendents of genocide victims.
    By the way, you are completely wrong about the UN. Were you at that UN meeting in 1985? I was!! You are simply regurgitating Turkish denialist propaganda. Please check the UN report prepared by Benjamin Whitaker. You will find there a clear reference to the Armenian Genocide.

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