Turkologist Ruben Melkonyan addresses the removal of the Article criminalizing the denial of Genocide from the bill of the Senate in France. The Council coordinating the French-Armenian organization has issued this news with a special message, at the same time expressing its indignation. “If this information is confirmed officially, we can say that this is a kind of setback from the adopted European principles of democracy and justice because one of the most important principles is the human rights, and the gravest crime is considered the crime committed against the human. The Armenian genocide is the greatest crime that is directed against all mankind. Justifying the denial of the Armenian Genocide is not consistent with European principles of democracy and justice, criminalizing the denial was to be the most logical answer as France is considered one of the important centers of European and global democratization.
The position and response of this country to Turkey’s denials should be very clear. I am sorry that this decision has been made, this proves two things: first, the fact of the Armenian genocide continues to remain a subject of political bargaining, secondly, the issue of the Armenian Genocide in the European and generally, western states’ policy is the point of traditional concession of it, which they are doing to win Turkey’s favor, this is the subsequent and sad manifestation of political bargaining between Turkey and European countries,” – said the Turkologist to Aravot.am.
As to why the Senate made this move now, the Turkologist thinks that because of the events happening in the regions, Turkey’s importance has grown, “Western superpowers are more concerned about positive developments in the Turkish-Russian relations, therefore, this move by them on concessions must also be placed in the context of these problems. The Turkish government’s moves in this direction are traditional and classical, they continue to act by the rules of the political bargaining game with different countries, aiming to ousts the issue of the Armenian genocide from the international legal dimension, therefore, using different methods, including pressure or cajole policy to different countries. France is one of their targets because France was the country which was the most precise in expressing its position in the context of the recognition of the Armenian Genocide, this was clearly a setback from this position.”
To our question of whether it is possible to have non-Armenophile changes in the fate of the resolution condemning the Armenian Genocide adopted by the Bundestag, the Turkologist replied, “The main problem is that the law criminalizing the Genocide denial is still unable to overcome the legal and political obstacles … unfortunately, we have not yet achieved serious successes in the context of legal proceedings relating to the Armenian genocide, which could affect the Bundestag decision because it has more of a political and moral significance.”
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Arpine SIMONYAN
