Brussels shies away from Turkey-Armenia genocide dispute

19.05.2006
EUobserver
By Teresa Küchler

The French parliament on Thursday suspended a vote on a law that would criminalise denial of the alleged Turkish genocide of Armenians in the early 1900s, with Brussels shying away from seeing the event as a political criterium for Turkish EU entry.

In 2001, French lawmakers passed a bill which accuses the Ottoman Turks of committing genocide against the Armenians between 1915 and 1923, with Armenians asserting the campaign cost 1.5 million lives.

As a consequence, French MPs were on Thursday (18 May) set to vote on a law similar to already existing legislation against holocaust-denial, which could see an individual facing a sentence of up to five years in prison and a €45,000 fine.

The president of the French parliament, Jean-Louis Debré, however interrupted the session in the middle of a heated debate, saying there was "no time" to deal with the initiative put forward by the socialist opposition party.

The announcement caused uproar in the visitor's grandstand, where dozens of members of the French 400,000-strong Armenian minority clapped their hands for over five minutes, while shouting "The vote, the vote!"

For its part, Ankara denies the genocide charges, recognising only 500,000 Armenian deaths during the Ottoman war, and rejects the genocide tag saying both sides suffered severe losses in the war.

Addressing the plenary in Paris, French foreign minister Philippe Douste-Blazy following his party's line, stressed the "serious political consequences" an adoption of the law would mean.

"The Armenian cause is righteous and it should be defended and respected. But the national representation must keep France's interests in mind, and the methods it uses to defend its principles," Mr Douste-Blazy told deputies.

Ankara has announced that Turks could boycott French products and French firms could lose lucrative contracts if the legislation is passed, just as the country did in 2001 when the alleged genocide was officially recognised by French law.

Political criteria in EU talks?
The topic has come up several times in the discussion on a future possible EU membership of Turkey, which started accession negotiations last autumn.

A number of European parliament reports urging Turkey to admit to the genocide have been adopted by MEPs since as far back as 1987.

In September last year MEPs backed a resolution on the matter to be forwarded to the European Commission, which monitors Turkey's readiness for EU accession, urging the latter to include the genocide in Ankara's EU membership negotiations with Brussels.

"The proposal that the recognition of the alleged Armenian genocide as a political criteria has arisen from time to time throughout the accession process with Turkey," a commission official told EUobserver.

Brussels has however so far taken a hesitant approach to include conditions on historical events as political criteria for EU accession, because of the European continent's motley war and border history.

The official said that during the bloc's last enlargement round, several eastern European member states had- and in some cases still have- ongoing disputes about "who did what to whom during the war", and that therefore it was important to Brussels to stay out of such disputes.

As for Armenia, the official said "We do not take a stance on the Armenian case, we leave it to historians to study what happened."

Once Turkey joins EU then the whole EU will be tainted by Turkey's denial of the Armenian Genocide. does EU want that?

The official said a number of EU countries were sceptical to a commission defining historical events, explaining that to add such a criteria to the current demands would need unanimity among member states.

Of course Britain's roll is crucial. When will Britain recognize the Armenian Genocide occurred? May be after Turkey will?

He pointed out however that the commission has underlined the importance of "good neighbourly relations".

Of course if Turkey makes the opening of the border tied to the condition of Armenia dropping the pursuit of the recognition of the Armenian Genocide, then we do not have a "good Neighbourly relationship" do we?

The so-called "accession partnership" text, adopted by EU member states in January this year, suggests that candidate states "address any sources of frictions at their borders".

"That is the closest we get to addressing the matter," the commission official said.

Some MEPs have followed along the same line of argument, pointing out that it would be insensitive and unfair to demand political criteria for Turkey other than those used for the last round of enlargement.

"The recognition of the Armenian genocide should not be political criteria for EU accession of Turkey," leftist German MEP Feleknas Uca told Euobserver, adding that compliance with the so-called Copenhagen Criteria should continue to be the sole measure of EU-accession for Turkey.

The only power Armenians worldwide have is their democratic rights, that puts the use of crude power by blackmail that Turkey uses to stop the recognition of the Armenian Genocide to shame.

Note: Above are excerpts from the article. The full article appears here. Clarifications and comments by me are contained in {}. Deletions are marked by [...]. The bold emphasis is mine.