EU Constitution Is at Risk
French-Armenians Mount Stiff Opposition Ahead of Vote
World News
THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
April 21, 2005
By DAN BILEFSKY ([email protected]), Staff Reporter of THE WALL
STREET JOURNAL
PARIS — A constitution for the European Union’s 450 million citizens
risks becoming little more than a historic footnote thanks in part
to an unlikely opponent: 450,000 French-Armenians.
This influential community — a potent force in the battle against
the charter — has linked its opposition to a wholly unrelated matter:
their people’s decades-old fight to get Turkey to acknowledge a 1915
genocide of Armenians. They are mobilizing to show their anger over
Brussels’ willingness to offer EU membership to Turkey.
The group’s strategy is in line with those of myriad other interest
groups that have seized on the May 29 constitutional referendum to
make demands addressing all the EU’s perceived ills, threatening to
plunge the bloc into paralysis.
French farmers have exploited the debate to gain special concessions
from the government: Paris recently agreed to subsidize one-week summer
vacations for livestock farmers, a majority of who were planning to
vote against the treaty, according to recent polls. Meanwhile, the
nation’s powerful unions have threatened to vote “no” unless they get
guarantees that the French social model of strong worker protection
is sacrosanct. When French President Jacques Chirac last week held
a rare televised debate with 83 young people, the audience grilled
him on policemen’s wages, France’s record unemployment and fears of
competition from low-wage countries — but little on the content of
the EU treaty.
“People are using the vote on the constitution as a protest vote,” said
Ara Toranian, leader of France’s largest Armenian association. “There
is a window of opportunity in the next six weeks, and we will make
sure that our voices are heard.”
The EU’s constitution is meant to improve the bloc’s internal
organization and its position on the world stage by creating a
new foreign-policy chief, revamping the EU’s voting structure
to make decision-making easier and introducing a bill of rights,
among other measures. To take effect, it needs approval from all 25
members of the EU; 20 have yet to sign on. Its rejection by France
— one of the document’s prime architects — could be a death blow,
and even a narrow “oui” could help spur “no” votes elsewhere. Another
country’s rejection could be shrugged off, but not that of France. The
Netherlands, where little interest on either side has been apparent,
votes a few days later.
Nineteen opinion polls in a row since mid-March indicate a majority
of French people will vote against the constitutional treaty, with a
poll taken by the TNS-Sofres polling firm published yesterday showing
it losing by 55% to 45%.
An Armenian “no” vote in France could prove decisive, then. The
bare majority — within a hair of 51% — that approved France’s 1992
referendum on adopting the euro currency amounted to about 450,000
votes, roughly the size of the Armenian community. Armenian leaders
hope to help secure a “no” vote by playing up fears about admitting
Turkey into the EU. Those fears resonate with many French voters,
who are ambivalent about their country’s eight million Muslims and
often cite concerns about Turkey as a prime reason for voting down
the constitution — despite the fact that the vote has no bearing on
Ankara’s EU aspirations.
Réné Dzagoyan, a French novelist of Armenian origin and member of the
“no” campaign, insists the matters are linked, though. Mr. Dzagoyan
said he will spend the next six weeks giving lectures arguing that the
constitution is a faulty document because it fails to define what it
means to be European, in either geographical or cultural terms. “The
fact that the EU can open entry talks with a country like Turkey
that doesn’t uphold European values shows that this constitution is
meaningless,” he says, waving a copy of the 300-page document.
Armenians accuse Turkey of genocide in the killing of as many as
1.5 million Armenians by Ottoman Turks during World War I. Turkey
rejects the claim, arguing that Armenians and Turks both were killed
when Armenians sided with invading Russians. In December, Mr. Chirac,
an ardent supporter of the EU charter, told Turkey it eventually would
have to acknowledge the mass killing of the Armenians if it wants to
join the EU.
Worried leaders of the “yes” camp in both Mr. Chirac’s ruling
center-right party and the Socialist Party are demanding that their
prominent Armenian members stop campaigning against it publicly.
The Armenian community also has formed an alliance with Philippe de
Villiers, president of the political party Le Mouvement Pour La France.
One of the most fervent campaigners in the “no” camp, he even picks on
the date the referendum will be held, noting that on that day in 1453
the Ottoman Empire wrested Constantinople from the Roman Empire. “The
Armenian community can be an important swing vote in this referendum.
They have been hard-done by the EU, which has decided to add insult
to injury by opening negotiations to admit Turkey into the bloc —
and we should support them,” Mr. de Villiers said in an interview.
Uluc Ozulker, Turkey’s ambassador to France, said he is mystified by
all the attention on Turkey since the referendum on the constitution
has nothing to do with his country. “Turkey is not in the EU and
won’t be for the foreseeable future, so whether there is a ‘yes’ or
‘no’ vote is not our problem,” he said.
Write to Dan Bilefsky at ([email protected])
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