Tag: denial of Armenian Genocide

  • Turkey’s arguments against Genocide bill untenable

    Turkey’s arguments against Genocide bill untenable

    YEREVAN.- Turkey’s arguments against adoption of a Genocide bill by the French Senate are untenable, Armenian Foreign Minister Edward Nalbandian told journalists on Monday.

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    “The arguments presented by the Turkish side are weak, to put it mildly,” he said. According to him, the Turkish side states adoption of the bill can hamper normalization of the Armenian-Turkish relations. However, the major obstacle is Turkey’s position.

    Moreover, Turkey’s arguments on economic interests and interconnection between the bill and Ankara’s possible role in the region are hints at corruption, not only blackmail.

    French parliament adopted on December 22 a bill criminalizing genocide denials, including the Armenian Genocide. The bill will be debated by French Senate on January 23.

    via Turkey’s arguments against Genocide bill untenable – Armenian FM | Armenia News – NEWS.am.

  • Another headache for Turkey

    Another headache for Turkey

    Forum of Armenian Unions in Europe (FAUE) informs that chairman of the Slovakian Supreme Court, former deputy minister and Minister of Justice Stefan Harabin met the chairman of the FAUE Ashot Grigoryan and handed him a letter which especially says:

    “As I have already announced while I was the Minister of Justice, we managed to approve a law about the denial of Armenian Genocide. According to the law Genocide, racism, Holocaust and communism are the crimes against humanity and one who justifies or denies them must be sentenced with five years if it is done deliberately. If the announcement is made accidentally, then the person must be sentenced with three years. This law has worked inSlovakiasince September, 2009.

    So Slovakia is the first county in the EU which accepted the law about criminalization of Armenian Genocide denial and is the second country in Europe afterSwitzerlandwhich accepted this law. I am really surprised that Turkey now makes such noise around the resolution discussed by French Senate.Turkey made noise when Slovakia and Switzerland accepted such laws but the noise did not give any result then as well.

    I apply to the President of French Senate and to the Senate members and announce that this law has a great importance. I think that Slovakian President will joint French President and will apply to the EU member countries to accept this law. I will also apply to the members of Slovakian National Council to assist French Senate to approve the bill. We will share our experience with the EU parliamentarians to struggle against Turkish denial of Armenian Genocide.

    Stefan Harabin, 09.01.2012, Bratislava, Slovakia”.Ashot Grigoryan informs that before Slovakia accepted the law Turkish Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Turkish Embassy in Slovakia made great efforts to demontage the monument devoted to the victims of Armenian Genocide in the center of Bratislava. But afterSlovakiaaccepted law on criminalization of Armenian Genocide denial no Turk official has tried to do anything on this issue.

    Remind that on December 22 French National Assembly accepted the draft on criminalization of Armenian Genocide denial which defines a year arrest and fine of 45.000 Euros for those who will deny Armenian Genocide. The draft will be discussed at French Senate on January 23. If it is approved it will be presented to the French President to be signed.

    Turkish sources announced before that French President is going to offer all EU countries to accept such a law.

    Turkeystarted a large campaign againstFrance, but no significant results are seen yet.

    via Another headache for Turkey.

  • Algerian Islamist party backs Turkey over genocide row

    Algerian Islamist party backs Turkey over genocide row

    Algerian Islamist party backs Turkey over genocide row

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    An Algerian Islamist party on Sunday sprang to the defence of Turkey’s prime minister after Algeria’s leader criticised Ankara for exploiting France’s oppression of Algerians during the colonial period.

    Bouguerra Soltani, head of the Social Movement for Peace (MSP) party, backed Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan after he was criticised by Algerian Prime Minister Ahmed Ouyahia.

    Turkey has accused France of hypocrisy for pushing a bill that would make it a crime for anyone to deny that the 1915-17 killing of Armenians by Ottoman Turks amounted to genocide.

    Erdogan has argued that France is turning a blind eye to its own colonial-era killings in Algeria, at the end of World War II and during the north African nation’s struggle for independence between 1954 and 1962.

    “An estimated 15 percent of the Algerian population was massacred by the French from 1945 onwards,” Erdogan has said. “This is a genocide.”

    Ouyahia implicity rebuked him in remarks Saturday.

    Every country had the right to defend its interests, he said, but “nobody has the right to make the blood of Algerians their business”.

    Ouyahia noted that Turkey had been a member of NATO during the independence war in Algeria and as such had provided material support to France.

    “We say to our (Turkish) friends: Stop making capital out of Algeria’s colonisation,” he added.

    But Soltani said Sunday: “We don’t accept anyone saying that Erdogan is making the blood of Algerians their business,” he told reporters.

    “We have a historic cause,” he added.

    “Colonialism killed 5.5 million Algerians, 1.5 million of them during the (1954-1962) liberation war…,” he said, referring to the legacy of French occupation from 1830.

    When someone spoke up about your cause, he added, you should thank them rather than criticising them.

    Erdogan had asked nothing of Algeria, he added.

    “He just told France ‘You say that Turkey exterminated the Armenians in 1915, I am reminding you that you exterminated the Algerians’.

    “We support all those who call for France to officially acknowledge the crimes of colonial France and to apologise to and compensate the victims,” he added.

    He denounced Ouyahia’s comments as “a service rendered to France”.

    Algerian historians say that a French crackdown on a protest in the east Algerian city of Setif on May 8, 1945, to call for an end to French colonial rule, left 45,000 people dead.

    Western researchers put the death toll at between 8,000 and 18,000.

    The French lower house approved the genocide bill December 22 and the Senate is expected to vote on it by the end of January.

    If it is enacted, anyone denying that the 1915-1917 massacre of Armenians by Ottoman Turk forces amounted to genocide, could face jail time.

    © 2011 AFP

    via Algerian Islamist party backs Turkey over genocide row < French news | Expatica France.

  • Turkish threats quicken criminalization of Armenian Genocide

    Turkish threats quicken criminalization of Armenian Genocide

    By Sasun Hovhannisyan

    On December 22 the National Assembly of France adopted a bill criminalizing the denial of genocides. It will soon be sent to the French Senate’s floor.

    88282This bill was adopted sooner than expected and this in fact is a reaction to the Turkish attempts to increase pressures in the French. It is time that Turkey changed its attitude towards the Armenian genocide and withstand from the strategy of historical denial within its territory as well as internationally. This strategy is not giving any tangible results but alienating Turkey from its allies. Turkey’s attempt to blame the Armenian genocide recognition process on the Armenian Diaspora or local elections does not stand criticism by the fact that countries with little Armenian Diaspora, stronger Turkish communities and allies to Turkey, such as Sweden (in 2011), Poland (2005), the Netherlands (2004), Slovakia (2004), Germany (2005)  and many others have passed genocide recognition resolutions. This trend is bound to continue, the Turkish over-reaction to the issue increase the international community’s interest and international public awareness towards the Armenian genocide.

    The world is heading towards universal human values, where genocides and violations of human rights have less or no place. Yes, a few hundred years ago the sovereignty of the state was considered as a sacred and inviolable value and massacre of population within the state was considered as an internal issue. But the universal movement towards democracy and protection of human rights, which started just in France, has made humanitarianism as a universal value. In 1915 the Entente countries condemned the 1915 massacres of Armenians as a crime against humanity. And Turkey cannot fight against the pivotal value of the modern world through misrepresenting history and through political menaces. This strategy may lead Turkey to isolationism.

    The countering of the freedom of speech to criminalization of the denial of genocides is not appropriate, because the freedom of speech itself is subject to some legal restrictions, including by some articles in the Genocide Convention. The same logic forbids fascistic and racial appeals, the destructive power of which was strengthened by “scientific” arguments several decades ago. Also, freedom of speech can by no means justify the falsification of history and disrespect towards the descendents and victims of millions of Armenians during the First World War.

    For decades now the descendents of the victims of the Armenian genocide have struggled against denial of the genocide throughout the world. And the reason of some of the success stories does not lie in their political and economic power, but in the righteousness of their cause. They are acting by “Never again” motto. The Armenian genocide became a precedent for the following genocides, as the Holocaust, Cambodia, Ruanda, and Darfur, the first genocide of the 21st century. The atmosphere of impunity and the absence of condemnation of genocides prepare a ground for a repetition of a new genocide .Many people recall the famous expression of Hitler in 1939 August about the extermination of the Armenians. Then it was already too late as the extermination of the Jews in Europe had started. But before coming to power, in 1931 June, Hitler gave an interview to a German paper where he mocked the massacres of the Armenians and used it as a possible specimen for repetition towards other peoples under different circumstances. I mean to say that the absence of condemnation of genocide and impunity directly hit its prevention in the future. Genocide denier under the circumstances of impunity supports a birth of genocide.

    For anyone to believe in the Turkish claims that there are differing sides to the Armenian genocide is as much an outrage as it would be for Germany to say that the work of Jewish scholars, witnesses, and victim testimonies represented merely the “Jewish side” of the Holocaust. To deny genocide victims their history and suffering is tantamount to making them victims again.

    Indeed there are many people in Turkey, especially the intellectuals, who do accept that a genocide of Armenians was committed a hundred years ago in Turkey, but on the other hand there is still Article 301 in the Turkish Penal Code, which can penalize anyone accepting the fact of the Armenian genocide. On the one hand, Turkey demands respect of freedom of speech (i.e. understanding under it the denial of genocide), on the other hand, in its own country restricts the same freedom of speech (i.e acceptance of genocide), thus acting as a classical example of an actor of double-standards.

    Few, if any, doubt the fact of the Armenian genocide. France reiterated that the issue is about a historical event, the reality of which is a fact. The US debates of the Armenian genocide do not doubt the ample existence of genocidal facts. Every US President sends words of compassion to the Armenian people and descendents of the victims of the genocide. Academicians, political circles, the public in general and most of the states in the US do accept the fact of the Armenian genocide, but under the current situation, due to some political calculations, this has not yet been officially done. But that is a matter of time.

    By the example of France, others will recognize the genocide and criminalize its denial. Many states will appeal to Turkey to face its historical past as long as Turkey does not give up its policy of denial. This is a route that former colonial powers of Europe passed. Europe has long ago reconciled with its past and come to terms with the mistakes and/or crimes of some of their predecessors, and sincerely, I think Europe will keep its doors closed to Turkey as long as Turkey does not cross that path. Threats of revenge and sanctions merely downgrade Turkey.

    Now Turkey faces a dilemma. On the one hand it can continue its policy of denial, its hostile policy towards Armenia (a proof of which is its blockade of Armenia), thus heading to a stalemate by deteriorating its relations with its allies and further losing its image. On the other hand, it can rise from a denier state to a state committed to universal human values by facing its historical past, by normalizing its relations with Armenia without any conditions, opening borders and establishing diplomatic relations with Armenia. This would mean that Turkey is a mature state and is willing to engage with its neighbours and is not continuing the Armenophobic policies of the Young Turks. Otherwise, so far, the zero policy with neighbours has led to zero results.

    Recognition of the Armenian genocide does not threaten the Turkish statehood or its territorial integrity. There is no connection between genocide recognition and territorial claims. In fact, all Armenian Presidents have said so. There is no legal argument either. Genocide recognition cannot result in territorial reparations. This issue is often manipulated by nationalist politicians. Yet, the end of denial will enable the reconciliation between the Turkish and Armenian peoples, of which both will be the winners.

    Sasun Hovhannisyan is President of the French-Armenian Youth Foundation (FAYF), student at the University of Lyon.

  • Algerian PM Ouyahia to Turkey: stop making political capital of France massacre of Algerians

    Algerian PM Ouyahia to Turkey: stop making political capital of France massacre of Algerians

    Algerian Prime Minister Ahmed Ouyahia talks to journalists upon his arrival at Tunis’ Carthage Airport on December 3, 2008. Ouyahia has asked Turkey to stop citing French genocide of Algerians as it engages in a war of words with France over the 1915 Armenian genocide.

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    Photograph by: STR, AFP/Getty Images

    ALGIERS – Algerian Prime Minister Ahmed Ouyahia urged Turkey Saturday to stop trying to make political capital out of France’s killing of thousands of Algerians during the colonial period.

    He made the call as Turkey continued to assail Paris ahead of a French Senate vote on a bill that would make it a crime for anyone to deny that the killing of Armenians by Ottoman Turks 1915-17 amounted to genocide.

    Turkey has accused France of hypocrisy for its own hand in killings committed in its former colony, Algeria, in 1945 and during the north African nation’s struggle for independence between 1954 and 1962.

    “An estimated 15 per cent of the Algerian population was massacred by the French from 1945 onwards,” Erdogan has said. “This is a genocide.”

    Ouyahia said every country has the right to defend its interests, but “nobody has the right to make the blood of Algerians their business.”

    French forces cracked down on a protest in the east Algerian city of Setif on May 8, 1945, to call for an end to French colonial rule, leaving 45,000 people dead, according to Algerian historians.

    Western researchers put the death toll at between 8,000 and 18,000.

    Ouyahia noted that Turkey had been a member of NATO during the war in Algeria and as such had provided material support to France.

    “We say to our (Turkish) friends: Stop making capital out of Algeria’s colonisation,” Ouyahia said at a press conference.

    The French lower house approved the genocide bill December 22 and the Senate is expected to vote on it by the end of January.

    If it is enacted, anyone denying that the 1915-1917 massacre of Armenians by Ottoman Turk forces amounted to genocide, could face jail time.

    © Copyright (c) AFP

    via Algerian PM Ouyahia to Turkey: stop making political capital of France massacre of Algerians.

  • Turkish hackers target French websites before genocide vote

    Turkish hackers target French websites before genocide vote

    By Nicolas Cheviron

    Agence France Presse

    ISTANBUL: Turkish hackers are threatening to unleash a wave of cyber attacks against French websites after legislators in Paris voted to approve a law that would ban the denial of the Armenian genocide.

    Already, hackers have assailed dozens of French websites, including that of Valerie Boyer, the French politician who introduced the law that could punish genocide deniers with jail time.

    Some attacks have been blamed on a hacking group known as AyYildiz, which says it fights for Turkish values.

    “AyYildiz has nothing against the French,” he said. “But if this carries on, there will be far more serious attacks from many groups,” said Ishak Telli, a spokesman for the group.

    The French lower house approved the law on December 22 and the Senate is expected to vote on it by the end of January.

    If it is enacted, anyone denying that the 1915-1917 massacre of Armenians by Ottoman Turk forces amounted to genocide could face jail time.

    Telli said hackers could initiate attacks causing millions of euros in damage.

    “You can close commercial and banking sites,” Telli said. “You can take down government websites … The AyYildiz team has that capability.”

    Ankara reacted angrily when the National Assembly passed the bill, quickly freezing political and military ties with France. Turkey withdrew its ambassador to Paris, but embassy officials say he will return Monday to monitor the Senate’s handling of the bill.

    Starting in 1915, during World War I, many thousands of Armenians died in Ottoman Turkey. Armenia says 1.5 million were killed in a genocide where many perished after being forced to march into the desert without adequate supplies.

    Turkey says around 500,000 died in fighting after Armenians sided with Russian invaders.

    France recognised the killings as a genocide in 2001, but the new bill would punish anyone who denies this with a year in jail and a fine of 45,000 euros ($60,000).

    Modern Turkey is still very sensitive about the issue, and has accused France of attacking freedom of expression and free historical enquiry.

    Akincilar, another Turkish hacking group, was blamed on attacking Boyer’s site and that of French-Armenian politician Patrick Devedjian.

    Such lawmakers would do better to “study Ottoman history,” the group said in a video sent to AFP.

    “Our goal is to expose the arrogance shown by France when it legislates in its own parliament about the affairs of other countries,” the group said.

    Web hacking is illegal in Turkey and hackers run the risk of prison.

    But for those that do it, hijacking a website attacking Turkish beliefs and morals is not a crime, and no nationalist hacker has been targeted by authorities, said Ozgur Uckan, new media expert at the Istanbul Bilgi University.

    “This type of hacking isn’t really punished,” Uckan said. “But if they attack Turkish government sites, the police will do everything in their power … It’s a kind of double standard.”

    via THE DAILY STAR :: News :: Middle East :: Turkish hackers target French websites before genocide vote.