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Anger Over Armenian Genocide Law in France

Following the passage of a law in the French parliament that makes denying the Turkish genocide of the Armenians in the early 20th century illegal, Turks are not the only ones dismayed by the law`s being passed in the lower house. Even French president Jacques Chirac has expressed his displeasure with the law, while still calling on Turkey to admit culpability for past mistakes. Leading politicians running for the presidency of France in 2007, including a member of Chirac`s own party Nicholas Sarkozy and Socialist candidate Segolene Royal, also are of the opinion that Turkey needs to come to terms with its past.

A measure that had been previously suspended in the Turkish parliament, a reciprocal law that would make denying alleged French genocide during the country`s rule in Algeria illegal, is once again under discussion and ordinary Turks are making symbolic gestures of disapproval, such as selling their Peugot cars. The Turkish prime minister has asked that apparent French intolerance against Turks not lead to Turkish intolerance against the French. The European Union has come out on the side of Ankara, expressing displeasure with the French law at a time when Turkish support for joining the EU is at an all-time low.

Many Turks expressed their disappointment less with the law and more with the fact that the Armenian minority in France managed to get a law passed in its favor even though the Turkish immigrant community in the French Republic is larger. There are approximately 450,000 Armenians or French of Armenian descent in France. Some in Turkey, a secular Muslim state, have called for the forced deportation of some 70,000 Armenians residing there. Ankara has also denounced what it sees as France`s attempt to limit free speech even as the Paris demands - along with the rest of the EU - that Turkey itself allow more free speech.