Before the election the opposition Socialist Party held a majority in 58 departments out of 100 in France. At Sunday’s cantonal elections, the Socialists managed to win from the right-wing at least another 3 departments and are planning to win as many in the future. It was the Socialist Party that put forward the draft law on criminalizing the Armenian Genocide denial in the lower house of parliament in 2006 and now intends to introduce it into the Senate. The Socialists urge that the law be ratified by the upper house of the French parliament. According to media reports, the bill will be submitted to the Senate on May 4.
The French-Armenian community, led by world known singer, Armenian Ambassador to Switzerland Charles Aznavour pressed the Senate and President Sarkozy for adoption of the bill. On March 12, 2011, about 3000 people gathered in front of the French Senate urging lawmakers to ratify the bill. Aznavour urged Sarkozy to be as good as his word, otherwise Armenians of France could remember about the broken promise during the next presidential election in 2012. The ruling party had better treat the statement seriously, since the number of voters of Armenian descent is rather large in France to negatively affect the outcome of election for Sarkozy and his party. There are several reasons for it, the dominant among them being Turkey. Though France is an active opponent of Turkey’s EU membership, according to WikiLeaks, Paris promised Ankara to “bury” the law in the Senate. Whether it’s true or not is really hard to say, but the constant suspension of hearing of the law involuntarily suggests that the scandalous website is not far off the mark.
It so happened that Armenian Genocide recognition by any country arouses a storm of fury in Turkey and recently also in Azerbaijan, accompanied by threats of various kinds of action, including rupture of diplomatic relations. But it usually ends with the Turkish ambassador being called back to Ankara for consultation, and returning after a while. This happened to all the countries that recognized the Armenian Genocide and passed a law on criminalizing its denial. This also happened to France back in 2001. It seems none of these threats are well founded. Simply, just in case, Ankara showers “probationary” threats: if it works – so much the better, if not – it’s nothing! So far these threats have worked only in relation to the U.S., even though Washington has all the necessary grounds not to succumb to Turkish pressure. Nonetheless, she succumbs and does it with surprising constancy. Perhaps there is something that gives Turkey the right to blackmail all the U.S. presidents. But it’s not yet clear what it could be. Although it can be assumed that Turkey helps the U.S. to stay in the Middle East, demanding instead non-recognition of the genocide. Everything is possible. Each country has a skeleton in the closet, which for the time being is kept caged.
