Posted on 12/14/2004 7:11:36 PM PST by yonif
Three days before a key European Union summit that is likely to give Turkey a date for starting formal entry talks, French Foreign Minister Michel Barnier has said that Ankara must reassess its past. Barnier said yesterday that Turkey must come to terms with the mass killing of Armenians in the late years of the Ottoman Empire before it can enter the EU. The remarks have already provoked reactions in Turkey. Ankara has long denied charges that Turks committed genocide against Armenians.
Prague, 14 December 2004 (RFE/RL) -- The comments by French Foreign Minister Michel Barnier came after talks in Brussels with his counterparts from the 24 other European Union countries.
Barnier told reporters that France wants Ankara to reconsider its position on the mass killings of Ottoman Armenians at the start of the last century before it joins the EU.
"Regarding Armenia, I mentioned the request that France will make during the negotiations [with Turkey] for a recognition of the tragedy that took place at the beginning of the [last] century and that concerned hundreds of thousands of Armenians," Barnier said.
It was the first time a French government official publicly established a link between the Armenian atrocities and Turkey's EU aspirations.
Barnier said France would file an official request with the Turkish government after the EU gives Ankara a date for the start of formal entry talks.
Ankara's membership bid will be reviewed at the EU's winter summit on 16 and 17 December in Brussels. The bloc has already made it clear that it will give positive answers.
According to most Western estimates, massacres and deportations between 1915 and 1923 claimed up to 1.5 million Armenian lives. Another 200,000 Armenians reportedly were killed between 1894 and 1896.
Most Western and Armenian scholars blame the nationalist Young Turk leaders that ruled over the Ottoman Empire during World War I for a deliberate policy of extermination.
Although the successive governments that came to power after the creation of the Turkish Republic in 1923 deny any links with their Ottoman predecessors, they have always refused to recognize the killings of Armenians as genocide.
Ankara insists the 1.5-million death toll is inflated and says that, if 300,000 Armenians did die during those years, this was largely the result of civil unrest that also claimed the lives of thousands of Turks.
Citing historical evidence, Western and Armenian scholars in turn say the Young Turks sought to systematically deport and massacre the empire's Armenian population, partly in retaliation for its suspected collaboration with Russia.
Since 1923, Turkey has resisted and condemned any attempt by foreign parliaments or governments to raise the Armenian genocide issue.
In June 2001, the French parliament passed a cautiously worded bill that recognized the 1915-1923 killings of Ottoman Armenians as genocide.
Although the French government opposed the initiative, President Jacques Chirac signed the bill into law. This prompted a swift reaction from Ankara, which threatened to sever economic and cultural ties with Paris.
Turkey's anger eventually abated after a few weeks and bilateral relations went back to normal.
Up until a parliamentary debate today, Barnier was careful to not describe the 1915-1923 killings as "genocide." Still, a Turkish Foreign Ministry spokesman immediately reacted to his initial comments, saying his country would "never recognize any so-called genocide."
Armenia, which has put recognition of the genocide worldwide on its foreign policy agenda, welcomed France's position.
Speaking to reporters in Yerevan today, Foreign Minister Vardan Oskanian said that Barnier's remarks in Brussels "show once again that the question of the genocide has gone beyond the Armenian framework and is now a global issue."
In an interview with Reuters last week, Oskanian said he hoped Turkey would change its stance on the genocide after it enters into talks with the EU.
Regional experts say Ankara's attitude toward the Armenian issue is deeply rooted in Turkeys' educational system, which glosses over the country's cultural diversity in a bid to promote a unifying Turkish national identity.
However, Barnier said that in France's view, Ankara cannot aspire to EU membership if it refuses to come in terms with its past.
"If, as I think, the core idea of Europe's project is that all its members should reconcile one with another -- like France and Germany, which have put reconciliation at the center of their project -- and that each member state should reconcile with its own past, then I believe that when the time comes Turkey, too, will have to come in terms with its own past and history and recognize this tragedy," Barnier said.
In comments on France 2 public television today, the foreign minister reiterated that Paris is not making this a condition for the opening of entry talks with the EU. Barnier said that would not be legally possible.
"This is an issue that we will raise during the negotiation process. We will have about 10 years to do so and the Turks will have about 10 years to ponder their answer. It is not a condition we're making for the opening of negotiations that will be discussed by EU leaders this coming Thursday and Friday," Barnier said.
Results of an opinion survey released today by the Paris-based French Institute of Public Opinion (IFOP) show a majority of citizens in France and Germany remain opposed to Turkey's entry into the EU.
Those who object to Ankara's accession cite its human rights record, its cultural and religious differences with European countries, and the status of women in Turkish society.
However, they make no mention of the Armenian issue.
Translated as: "We don't want you icky people and therefore will continue to put requirements on you that we think you won't meet."
Turkey is a Muslim country. Keep them out.
The rise of fundamentalism in Turkey over the last several years is troubling.
You are right. The French will keep moving the goal posts for the Turks, I suppose, to show them that they can.
I doubt we should hold our breath on this one!
The day France admits to ever doing anything wrong will be the the day we all die and go to Heaven.
Agreed. It was an atrocity and it should be recognised. I think its a fair condition, although I think it was only demanded as an impossible barrier.
Turkey has the potential to be an excellent bridge between the west and the east. I have a lot of time for the Turks...
No, the Armenians weren't the first. That honor was held by the Afrikaaners in South Africa who were subjected to genocide in the concentration camps built by the United Kingdom for purposes of waging the Boor War (1898-1902).
Hey, France is a Moslem country too? Should they be forced out of the EU?
The Turks will choke on their own vomit before recognizing that little genocide. But if they do start, there are plenty of others to recognize. Their genocide of the Orthodox Assyrians and Orthodox Iotolin Greeks would be a good start. Then there is the Orthodox Cypriot Greeks and the Kurds, amongst others.
Good point ... and yes!
OK, but then France should recognize that its Nazi collaborators vastly outnumbered those involved in the so-called French resistance.
Pot calls kettle black. News at 11.
OR when they become the first Muslim country in the EU, surrender may be imminent, LOL.
Muslims in Turkey are a far better ally than Christians in France.
And that pales to insignificance when we look at what the Greeks did to the Trojans! My word.
Who's going to apologize for that, and to whom?
Let me guess: the Froggies are going to make the Turks jump through humiliating hoops, before grudgingly approving their EU accession.
Turkey will develop a serious case of the ass, and use their population weight, locale, and leverage to create difficulties for France, once they get in.
The Froggies are trying to play the bigshot once again, and will live to regret it.
Damn straight! My grandparents met in an orphanage because their parents were massacred. My grandmother had to make up her birthday because she didn't know what it really was. Glad they made it to the USA!
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