LINKS WITH ARMENIA REINFORCE FRENCH FEARS: TURKEY’S ALLEGED GENOCIDE IS SEEN IN FRANCE AS A BARRIER TO EU ENTRY
By John Thornhill
Financial Times (London, England)
October 1, 2005 Saturday
London Edition 1
Every year France celebrates another country by organising bilateral
visits and cultural exchanges. In 2004it was China, and the Eiffel
Tower was briefly lit up in red. This year it has been Brazil –
hence the samba dancers at Paris plage.
Next year it will be Armenia. The choice of a small Caucasian country
of 3m people highlights the importance France attaches to Armenia.
This is mostly due to France’s 450,000-strong Armenian community,
which has grown increasingly rich and influential.
But the timing of Armenia Year could hardly be more discordant for
President Jacques Chirac if, as expected on Monday, France and the
European Union’s other 24 members signal the start of accession talks
with Turkey.
Armenians in France and elsewhere have been opposing Turkey’s entry
into the EU – unless and until Ankara acknowledges that the death
of Armenians during the break-up of the Ottoman empire was an act of
genocide. Armenians claim up to 1.5m people died in 1915-18. Turkey
denies genocide, and admits only that hundreds of thousands of both
Armenians and Turks died, largely as a result of civil war and famine.
The French parliament has already declared the massacres to have
been a genocide. And Mr Chirac has himself been sympathetic to the
Armenian cause.
Harout Mardirossian, president of the Paris-based Committee for the
Defence of the Armenian Cause, says Turkey has been a “a country in
denial” for 80 years that does not conform with the values espoused
by the EU.
“How can you imagine Germany being integrated into the European Union
in the 1960s if it did not recognise the Holocaust?” he says.
In spite of Mr Chirac’s support for accession talks with Turkey,
most of his compatriots are against the move. A recent Eurobarometer
poll showed that 70 per cent of French respondents opposed Turkey’s
entry into the EU with only 21 per cent in favour. Opposition to
Turkish entry boosted the victorious No vote during May’s referendum
on Europe’s constitution.
Those opposed to Turkey’s accession range from Islamophobic
nationalists to Armenian campaigners to fervent pro-Europeans who
believe the entry of such a large country would kill off the dreams
of a federal EU.
Earlier this month, Valery Giscard d’Estaing, the former French
president and father of the European constitution, said French voters
had clearly expressed their opposition to Turkey’s entry.
He noted: “There was a clear contradiction between the pursuit of
European political integration and the entry of Turkey into European
institutions. These two projects are incompatible.”
Mr Chirac has argued that Turkey’s entry into the EU would recognise
a great civilisation, extend Europe’s hand to the Muslim world, and
help energise the EU’s economy. But he has also guaranteed French
voters a referendum on whether to accept Turkey’s entry into the EU
once accession talks are completed.
However, Sylvie Goulard, a Europe expert at Sciences-Po university,
says this move deceives the French and Turks. “Resistance to Turkey’s
accession is not going to disappear in 15 years. Even if the Turks
have successfully reformed themselves, they will still share a border
with Iran and Iraq. You cannot change the nature of the EU without
a proper democratic debate.”
Whatever the EU leaders decide, the issue of Turkey will loom large
through the 2007 presidential elections and beyond. Nicolas Sarkozy,
president of the ruling UMP party and a strong presidential contender,
has already stated his firm opposition to Turkey’s accession. Dominique
de Villepin, the prime minister and rival presidential contender,
has doggedly defended Mr Chirac’s line.