HOW THE ARMENIAN MYTH TAINTED FRENCH DEMOCRACY

The adoption by the lower house of the French Parliament of the bill criminalizing the denial of the so-called "Armenian genocide in the Ottoman Empire" can be considered the greatest absurdity in the contemporary political and legal life of the West. The perverted myth-making is being introduced as a law by MPs of a country that describes itself as a democratic trendsetter and a preacher of ideals of liberty, equality and fraternity. The decision, legally enforced only by 38 of the 577 deputies of the National Assembly of France, which is, to put it mildly, puzzling in itself, envisages a prison sentence of one year or a fine of 45,000 euros for those who deny the notorious "genocide".

Thus, France reiterated its support for the delirious arguments of one of the parties to a historical dispute that has lasted almost a century, without listening to the counter-argument of the other party - Turkey, although the latter suggested setting up a joint Armenian-Turkish scientific commission of international experts to clarify the historical truth. Democratic law grants the right of defence even to hardened criminals. But here, French lawmakers, ostensibly in the name of humanity, but in fact, embarking on the path of explicit restrictions on the right to freedom of speech and thought, peremptorily accuse an entire people and their ally (after all, France and Turkey have been cooperating within NATO for more than half a century) of egregious crimes. At the same time, they are ready to imprison anyone who questions the alleged crime of which the Turks are being accused. Parallels with the punishment for the denial of the Holocaust in this case are absolutely untenable, since Hitler's crimes were proven in the International Tribunal, while the French deputies, judging by their actions, consider themselves an authority that is empowered to make a final verdict on issues relating to charges of crimes against humanity without investigating the actual validity of these allegations.

The decision of the French parliament, of course, outraged Turkey, which recalled its ambassador from Paris and pledged to freeze all political and diplomatic contacts with France. In addition, Ankara is ready to cancel joint projects in the fields of economy and education, minimize cooperation with Paris in the military sphere (in particular, to ban French military aircraft and ships from using Turkish air bases and sea ports) and stop cooperating with France through the European Union. Plus, Turkey has launched a campaign to accuse France itself of committing genocide against Algerians during the colonial occupation.

These measures will certainly affect bilateral cooperation. The decision of the French lawmakers and Ankara's ensuing sanctions against France will probably affect the latter more than Turkey. After all, according to official statistics, the trade turnover between the two countries is more than 13 billion euros. A question mark is hanging over the intensity of French automotive exports to Turkey and plans to retrofit the Turkish Airlines fleet with Airbus planes. French companies, which intended to participate in the construction of a nuclear power plant in Turkey, may now be removed from the list of partners in Ankara's nuclear activities.

The question arises: for what purpose, attaining which is so important for France, did its leadership unleash all this legal hype aimed at criminalizing the Armenian myth, which in fact has no direct relationship to France itself. They say their reason is, above all, the desire of President Nicolas Sarkozy and the Gaullist party he heads to win over the 500,000 votes of the Armenian diaspora in France and part of the nationalist electorate to avert the growth of Muslim and in particular, Turkish immigration. The assertion that the French political elite is motivated by its desire to harm the growing power of Turkey, which contends for leadership in the Middle East and southeast Europe, is very reasonable. And at the same time, they also make it clear to the Turks that they are reluctant to see them as a member of the EU family.

But does France really hope to deal a serious geopolitical blow to Turkey through the use of the "Armenian question"? Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu warned that "Turkey is not afraid of losing anyone and let other countries be afraid of losing the support and friendship of Turkey".

As for the Armenians, they appeared as a cheap tool in the international arena again. And overwhelmed by anti-Turkish craze, they are not even stopped by the fact that, providing the great powers with a chance to manipulate the painful pages of Armenian history, they only defile it and their own historical memory.

France will have to deal with the fact that indulgence towards Armenian fantasies will cause it a lot of problems not only in relations with Turkey. The question of Paris' inability to act as an impartial mediator between Azerbaijan and Armenia as a co-chair of the OSCE Minsk Group is already being raised. Baku, as expected, made it clear that Azerbaijan fully supports Turkey and believes that the decision of the lower chamber of the French parliament may affect bilateral relations between France and Azerbaijan. According to Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Elmar Mammadyarov, "the decision of the French National Assembly is unacceptable for Azerbaijan. If the French MPs express their attitude to what happened a hundred years ago, let them also express their attitude to the Xocali genocide and to the fact that a million Azerbaijanis have become refugees and internally displaced persons".

Given the risks facing France in the international arena, its senators, who considered the ill-fated bill, should ponder over how to stop the launch of a new inquisition, which is so unbecoming of the cradle of modern European democracy, and not to take the issue of criminalizing the denial of the far-fetched "Armenian genocide" to the Elysee Palace.