FRANCE FINDS THE QUID GUILTY OF TURKISH PROPAGANDA
YEREVAN, JULY 8. ARMINFO. A Paris court found the famous French
encyclopedia The Quid guilty of printing the Turkish view on the
“Armenian genocide”.
As the newspaper Zaman reports, the court fined The Quid encyclopedias
a symbolic indemnity payment of one euro. According to the court
decision the 2003 and 2004 editions of the encyclopedia, the Turkish
version of events were presented on the Armenian claim and the
opinions mentioned by the ‘denying historians’ were given as if they
were definite information. The court concluded that the Turkish
opinion was handled more extensively in the encyclopedia.
The Quid was also found guilty of supporting the thesis claiming that
Armenians were deported since they cooperated with Russians against
Turks. The Robert Laffont Publishing, which published the
encyclopedia, will announce the court decision in three newspapers and
three magazines. The publishing company had made a change in its 2005
edition upon Armenian pressure. The French Armenian Case Defense
Committee (CDCA) appealed to a Paris court in 2003 to launch an
investigation against The Quid on the grounds of publishing the
Turkish version of the 1915 incidents. Commenting on the court
decision, CDCA President Harout Mardirossian said, “it is a great
victory for the memory of our grandmothers and grandfathers”‘ adding
that with this decision France sent a significant message to Turkey to
end its ‘denial propaganda’. Stressing that the fight against denial
would continue, Mardirossian said they would try for France’s enacting
a law to punish those denying the Armenian genocide. Four law drafts
about this issue are waiting to come to the agenda in the French
Parliament. A Paris court heard the case in May. Armenian
organizations had claimed that the genocide is a reality accepted by
everyone and there cannot be a “Turkish opinion” and “Armenian
opinion”. Accusing The Quid of propaganda in favor of Turkey, CDCA
claimed that the viewpoint shown as scientific was in fact Turkey’s
official stance and to question the “Armenian genocide”. Refuting the
accusations, Robert Laffront Publishing said they had handled the
genocide issue taking all its aspects into consideration and that they
mentioned Armenian opinions in the section about Armenia. Formerly,
the court had convicted famous historian Bernard Lewis to a symbolic
payment of one euro for indemnity in 1995 after he spoke to French
newspaper Le Monde against the Armenian genocide.