Turkish Forum

Tag: Alain Juppe

  • When free countries ban opinion, they’re not free

    When free countries ban opinion, they’re not free

    George Jonas, National Post · Dec. 28, 2011 | Last Updated: Dec. 28, 2011 3:09 AM ET

    A man holds a placard reading "I boycott French goods" during a demonstration in front of the French consulate in Istanbul to protest a new law in France outlawing denial of the 1915 Armenian genocide in Ottoman Turkey.
    A man holds a placard reading "I boycott French goods" during a demonstration in front of the French consulate in Istanbul to protest a new law in France outlawing denial of the 1915 Armenian genocide in Ottoman Turkey.

    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.

    via When free countries ban opinion, they’re not free.

  • Turkish Kiss to Sarkozy and Valerie

    Turkish Kiss to Sarkozy and Valerie

    TolgaalAlain Juppe, the foreign minister of France, urged Türkiye “not to overreact” but Ankara was naturally furious and immediately recalled its ambassador, announced a raft of sanctions and promised they were the first on an escalating list of measures.

     

    • Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan stated France ‘burned Algerians in ovens’
    • Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan stated “This is politics based on racism, discrimination and xenophobia. “
    • Ambassador of Türkiye Tahsin Burcuoglu recalled from Paris today in protest.
    • Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan claimed ‘This is using  Turkophobia and Islamophobia to gain votes, and it raises concerns regarding these issues not only in Francebut all Europe.’

    Türkiye froze political and military relations with France in retaliation for the approval by the French parliament’s lower chamber of a measure that makes it a crime to deny so called genocide against Armenians a century ago.

    Erdogan said Ottoman Türkiye hadn’t committed genocide against Armenians and that his country is proud of its own history.   Türkiye will “take incremental steps and apply them with determination as long as this position continues,” Erdogan said today in Istanbul.

    The French legislation is “unjust, inaccurate and Türkiye condemns it vehemently,” Erdogan stated.  “People will not forgive those who distort history, or use history as a tool for political exploitation.”

    Türkiye accuses French colonialists of massacres in Algeria after Paris bill makes it a crime to deny killings of Armenians in 1915 byOttoman Empire was genocide.

    “France massacred an estimated 15 per cent of the Algerian population starting from 1945. This is genocide,” Mr Erdogan stated, accusing Mr Sarkozy of “fanning hatred of Muslims and Turks for electoral gains.” “This vote that took place in France, a France in which five million Muslims live, clearly shows to what point racism, discrimination and Islamophobia have reached dangerous levels in France and Europe,” he stated. When it comes to massacres French action against Algerian rebels in the aftermath of the Second World War, Mr Erdogan concluded Mr Sarkozy’s father had been a French legionnaire in Algeriain 1945 and should be able to tell his son of “massacres”.

    France fought a long guerrilla war between 1954 and 1962 to try to hang on to its Algerian colony. Estimates for the number of dead vary wildly.Algeriaputs it at more than a million, French historians estimate 250,000.

    Earlier, Türkiye’s ambassador to France had left Paris and Ankara had announced diplomatic sanctions – banning political visits between the countries – and frozen military ties between the theoretical Nato allies.  “We are really very sad. Franco-Turkish relations did not deserve this,” Ambassador Tahsin Burcuoglu said before taking a flight home. “When there is a problem it always comes from the French side.” “The damage is already done. We have been accused of genocide! How could we not overreact? Türkiye will never recognise this story of an Armenian genocide.” he stated.”There are limits. A country like Türkiye cannot be treated like this,” he declared.

    French carmakers including Renault control a fifth of Türkiye’s auto market and French banks including BNP Paribas SA have assets in the country exceeding $20 billion. French direct investment in Türkiye between 2002 and 2010 was $4.8 billion according to Turkish Embassy in Paris.

    Türkiye has been warning France for the past week that its fast-growing economy means it can really hurt companies such as Airbus SAS and Electricite de France SA if the measure goes through.  Türkiye’s economy grew an annual 8.2 percent in the third quarter, a pace only exceeded by China in the world.

    French carmaker Renault SA employs 6,800 people in Türkiye and is pressing on with production because the “French decision is a political development,” said Ibrahim Aybar, chief executive officer of Renault Mais in an interview on CNBC-e television.

    In a conversation with journalists ,“The French bill is counter-productive because the emotional reaction in Türkiye can set back the cause for years,” Pope said by telephone. “That’s why France is so short-sighted to introduce this bill.” Pope stated.

     

     

     

    Tolga Çakır

     

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    “Condemnation without hearing both sides is unjust and un-American”Arthur Tremaine Chester, “Angora and the Turks,” The New York Times Current History, Feb.1923

     

    “Believing Armenophile publicity ‘exaggerated, misconstructed, and abusive,’ [Admiral] Bristol in early 1920 told [Rev.] Barton… that it was contrary to the American sense of fair play to kick a man when he was down and give him a chance to defend himself.”Joseph L. Grabill, “PROTESTANT DIPLOMACY AND THE NEAR EAST: Missionary influence on American policy, 1810-1927,” 1971, p. 264

     

    “…Matter sent to the papers by their correspondents in Turkey is biased against the Turks. This implies an injustice against which even a criminal on trial is protected.”Gordon Bennett, publisher, The New York Herald, circa 1915
    “No Englishman worthy of the name would condemn a prisoner on the evidence of the prosecution alone, without first hearing the evidence for the defence.”C.F. Dixon-Johnson, British author, from his 1916 book, “The Armenians.”

     

    “There is no crime without evidence. A genocide cannot be written about in the absence of factual proof.” Henry R. Huttenbach, history professor who appears to support the Armenian viewpoint exclusively, as do… curiously… nearly all so-called “genocide scholars”; The Genocide Forum, 1996, No. 9
    “It is… time that Americans ceased to be deceived by (Armenian) propaganda in behalf of policies which are… nauseating…”John Dewey, Columbia University professor, “The Turkish Tragedy,”  TheNew Republic, Nov. 1928

     

     

     

     

    For nearly a century, the Western World has wholeheartedly accepted that there has been an attempt by the Ottoman Turks to systematically destroy the Armenian people, comparable to what the Nazis committed upon the Jews during World War II. Many Armenians who have settled in America, Europe and Australia (along with other parts of the world, known as “The Armenian Diaspora”) have clung to the tragic events of so long ago as a form of ethnic identity, and have considered it their duty to perpetuate this myth, with little regard for facts… at the same time breeding hatred among their young. As descendants of the merchant class from the Ottoman Empire, Armenians have been successful in acquiring the wealth and power to make their voices heard… and they have made good use of the “Christian” connection to gain the sympathies of Westerners who share their religion and prejudices.

    Turks characteristically shun propaganda, and have chosen not to dwell on the tragedies of the past, forging ahead to build upon brotherhood — not hate. This is why the horrifying massacres committed upon the Turks, Kurds and other Ottoman Muslims by Armenians have seldom been heard. When such reports are heard, Westerners can be callously dismissive… Turkish lives are apparently as meaningless to them as Indian lives were to most early Americans.

    (The following is an excerpt from Dr. Leon Picon, reviewing the book, “THE ARMENIAN FILE”):

     

  • France and Turkey Call for Pressure on Syria

    France and Turkey Call for Pressure on Syria

    By NADA BAKRI

    BEIRUT, Lebanon — France joined Turkey in calling for greater international effort to exert pressure on Syria to stop its bloody crackdown on protesters, as at least 15 more people were reported killed on Friday.

    At the same time, Syria made its first response to a proposal by the Arab League to send a delegation of more than 500 military and civilian observers to the country, but critics said it appeared to be a stalling tactic.

    The Arab League chief, Nabil al-Araby, said he received a letter from Syria’s foreign minister, Walid al-Moallem, asking him to amend the proposed plan. “These amendments are currently being studied,” Mr. Araby said.

    On Nov. 2, Syria said it had agreed to an Arab League-brokered plan under which it would halt all violence and withdraw armed forces from civilian areas, but the bloodshed continued, prompting the league to vote last weekend to suspend Syria. The proposal to send observers effectively delayed the suspension, and the current back and forth appears to push it back further.

    Activists said that three people were shot in Irbin, a town on the outskirts of Damascus; two were shot in Homs and three in Hama, two of the most restive cities in central Syria. At least seven protesters were also killed in the southern city of Dara’a, from where the uprising against President Bashar al-Assad broke out in mid-March.

    On Friday, Syrian state television said that three soldiers were killed and an officer was critically wounded in a bomb blast in Hama.

    With the situation in the country deteriorating, foreign leaders are themselves struggling for some kind of effective response.

    France’s foreign minister, Alain Juppé, on a visit to Ankara, Turkey, on Friday, called the situation “no longer sustainable.”

    At a news conference alongside his Turkish counterpart, Ahmet Davutoglu, Mr. Juppé also called on the Syrian opposition “to avoid recourse to an armed insurrection,” saying, “A civil war would, of course, be a true catastrophe.”

    Asked whether France would support military action by Turkey, including the entrance of forces to establish a kind of buffer zone as the opposition has proposed at various times, Mr. Juppé answered that any military action, no matter by whom, would have to be approved by the United Nations.

    Such a development, however, would appear extremely unlikely.

    Eight months into the uprising, the Syrian opposition is too fractured and diffuse to offer a unified position on what the international community should do.

    “The Arab League has offered us huge support, and we will never forget that,” said an activist named Ayman, 25, from Al Qaboun, a town on the northern outskirts of Damascus. “We believe that Arab states and Turkey are very close to figuring out how to help us.”

    Some dissidents said that the league’s latest offer to send monitors was too little, too late and that the government would find a way to foil their work.

    Separately on Friday, Prime Minister Vladimir V. Putin of Russia called for “restraint and caution.” France’s prime minister, François Fillon said at the same news conference: “We consider that the situation is becoming more and more dramatic. Bashar al-Assad has stayed deaf to the calls of the international community and has not followed up reform promises, and the massacres are continuing. We think that it is indispensable to increase international pressure, and we have tabled a resolution at the United Nations. We hope it will find as wide support as possible.”

    Neil MacFarquhar contributed reporting from Cairo.

    A version of this article appeared in print on November 19, 2011, on page A4 of the New York edition with the headline: New Calls To Press Syria From France And Turkey.

    via France and Turkey Call for Pressure on Syria – NYTimes.com.

  • France offers to host Turkish-Armenian history meeting

    France offers to host Turkish-Armenian history meeting

    ANKARA – Anatolia News Agency

    French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe speaks during a press conference in Ankara today. AFP photo
    French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe speaks during a press conference in Ankara today. AFP photo

    France’s foreign minister today said that his country could host a Turkish-Armenian joint history commission meeting.

    Alain Juppe defined the incidents of 1915 as a challenging issue, and all countries were making a memory homework about their history.

    Such a memory homework could be done in a history commission, Juppe told a joint press conference with Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu in Ankara.

    Juppe defined those days as a troublesome for both Turkey and Armenia, and said France may host a joint history meeting.

    The French foreign minister expressed thought that a significant progress could be made in such a meeting.

    Davutoğlu, in his part, said Turkey had accepted Juppe’s call for establishment of a joint history commission to investigate incidents of 1915.

    “We are ready to discuss our own history and other countries’ history in an atmosphere of mutual respect and freedom,” he said.

    Davutoğlu said however, Turkey was against laws and resolutions that would make its self-defense impossible, and noted that there was such a resolution at the French Senate today.

    “Implementation of this resolution is against French intellectual tradition and freedom of thought,” Davutoğlu said.

    Davutoğlu said Turkey would welcome any initiative from France regarding establishment of a joint history commission between Turkey and Armenia, and hoped that it would contribute to Turkish-Armenian rapprochement and normalize relations.

    In 2005, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan sent a letter to the then Armenian President Robert Kocharyan and proposed to establish a joint commission of historians to study the Ottoman-era incidents of 1915.

    via France offers to host Turkish-Armenian history meeting – Hurriyet Daily News.