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On January 18, 2001, the French parliament passed a bill recognizing the massacres of Armenians living under Ottoman rule during World War I as genocide. The move prompted a swift reaction from Ankara at the time, and Turkey still denies the genocide allegations made by the murder survivors and their descendants.
20 years ago today, France became the first great Western power to recognize the massacre of 1.5 million Armenians by the “Young Turk” government between 1915 and 1917 as genocide.
Turkey, however, has long maintained that the total number killed stood at around 300,000, Armenians and Turks, in what Ankara calls a “civil conflict.”
Following France’s decision to recognize the massacres as genocide, Ankara recalled its ambassador to Paris, and Europe braced for a political and economic reaction from Turkey, which never materialized .
David Coffey, from RFI, spoke with Vartan Kaprielian, president of the Chamber of Commerce of Armenia in France, currently in Yerevan, and questioned the historical importance of France’s position in the face of the suffering of Armenia at the end of the Ottoman Empire.
“It was very important to us. Imagine that you are in a cage – we were waiting for this moment – not only in France, but all over the world, we implored countries, policies, societies to understand that we have been through. atrocities. [over the past century]and one day the international community began to realize that something terrible had happened. And this concerns our families. “
“So you understand our suffering, not only to have been slaughtered, not only to have lost our country, but also not to have the possibility to tell people that what we went through was horrible.”
Turkey plays a skillful hand between East and West
Over the past two decades, Lebanon and Sweden have been notable countries that have recognized the Armenian genocide, although many major Western powers still have not fully recognized the nature of the Ottoman-led massacres a long time ago. century. So has Turkey’s strategic and economic importance in the region eclipsed the legacy of the past?
“You are right. The problem is that we are facing a country that is huge in terms of military might. In terms of economic possibilities. In terms of strategic geographic positioning. They really know how to maneuver between East and West.
“And they showed the Western countries how very difficult it would be for them to recognize and recognize the Armenian genocide whose consequences could be economic or strategic or military, like their participation in NATO, the accession of Turkey and of NATO, or its positioning in the Middle East.
“Everyone was afraid of damaging these relations between each of these countries and Turkey. But experience has shown us that when France recognized the Armenian genocide 20 years ago, economic and trade relations with Turkey have not really suffered … these countries need Turkey., but [Turkey needs] each of these western countries. “
Lately, Franco-Turkish relations have been at an all-time low. There is no love lost between President Macron and his counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan. But with recent events between Armenia and neighboring Azerbaijan, the outbreak of the decades-old conflict over the Nagorno-Karabakh enclave, would it be fair to say that the silence from Western powers over this conflict was deafening? ? Was the world reluctant to take a stand, walking on eggshells with Ankara?
“The whole world was deaf to this conflict. I wouldn’t say conflict. It was a very atrocious war that took place there. Can you imagine that in a few days more than 5,000 young Armenian soldiers were dead. “
“It was a fifth generation war [that has never happened anywhere in the world] it happened in this territory. Many parts of Nagorno-Karabakh were occupied by Azerbaijan. Many, several thousand people have been displaced from their homelands. It was a great war. It was a great catastrophe with very great consequences not only for the Armenians, but also for the civilized Western countries. “
Impunity for the Armenian genocide enabled the Jewish holocaust
“We will see in the next decade why the deafening silence of these nations will have a boomerang consequence for them. Although President Macron was the only one who clearly expressed Azerbaijan’s responsibility in this war. But overall we can say that nothing was really [done] to stop the war. “
“But as we know, Azerbaijan did not respect the ceasefires twice. And finally, France and the United States, as co-chairs of the Minsk group, could not do more.”
“If the 1915 genocide had been recognized at the time … if Turkey had been punished, at that time … First, the Jewish Holocaust would not have taken place, then other genocides did not occur. ‘would not have taken place.
“All criminals would think twice before taking such a step to eliminate other people and nations or groups in the world.”
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