Members of the Armenian community of France, like the singer Charles Aznavour, denounced Thursday “condolences” to the Turkish state grandchildren Armenians massacred in 1915, seeing no recognition of the genocide but the 
“patronizing” or “trap”.
Ceremonies were held in several cities to commemorate the massacres began April 24, 1915, attended by President François Hollande in Paris.
The Head of State ruled that the condolences of the Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan were “evolution” but they were not enough. Pleading “for recognition by the world” of the genocide, he announced that he would April 24, 2015 in Yerevan for its centenary.
Charles Aznavour, the “condolences” presented Wednesday by the Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan not worth recognition of genocide and “less” excuses. It should read “a mere personal desire to show a politician allegedly + open +”.
The Coordination Council of Armenian Organizations of France (CCAF) denounces a “communication operation” to avoid having to recognize the genocide, a term the Turkish government still refuses to use. “We do not have 99 years of condolences years after genocide,” said Mourad Papazian, co-chairman of the CCAF.
A Lyon where there is a large community, after a religious ceremony, between 1,000 and 2,000 people marched through the city center to the Genocide Memorial, behind a banner demanding “justice for the Armenian people.” In the procession, many young people shouted “murderer Turkey.”
Georges Képénékian, Deputy Mayor Gérard Collomb, believes that we should not “one word replaces another”: “The greatness of a State is to assume its history and allow victims to find serenity” .
His Armenian parents fled the Ottoman Empire prior to their arrival in France in 1921-22. Citing “Willy Brandt, Chancellor of the Federal Republic of Germany, who was kneeling at the memorial of the Warsaw Ghetto in 1970,” the elect is the dream of a similar gesture Erdogan in the Mesopotamian desert.
– ‘The missing word’ –
“They could take part in their responsibility rather than take part in our suffering!” Criticizes a spokesman of the Armenian National Centre recently opened in Décines Memory (Rhône), Daniel Meguerditchian, calling the gesture Erdogan “condescending “.
Vartan Balian, grand-son of genocide survivors, feels “insulted”: “Imagine + condolences + Germans in 2044 after a century of denial is what Armenians feel today,” he said, adding that they “are not fooled by these false repentance.”
In Strasbourg, thirty Armenians gathered in the city center, holding placards accusing Turkey of “deny” genocide. “What was said (Erdogan) is not enough. He wanted to calm the game just before 100 years, “thought Hamlet Housepian, recognizing” a breakthrough. ” “For us, it’s a trap, he did not utter the word genocide. This is the missing word “launched Artur Boghosyan, a high school student.
In Rennes, a hundred people gathered outside the town hall.
To Vigen Arakelyan, head of the local community, the initiative Erdogan “not many. Because it does not use the word genocide. ”
In Marseille, police said 1,300 people marched in the calm before the Consulate of Turkey. Vartan Arzumanyan, spokesman for the Association for Research and archiving of the Armenian memory, speaks of a “diversionary strategy” designed to “muddy the waters”, while worrying about the commission of historians mentioned by Erdogan, “while this genocide is no doubt.”
The association “New Generation Armenia” in France Cree finally the “denial strategy”: “The Prime Minister talks about + tough times + of + need mutual compassion between Armenians and Turks +, as if the Armenians had also their share of responsibility. ”
“This is the first time in 99 years that Turkey presents condolences to the victims’ descendants. It is therefore a step on the way to the recognition, “said his side Patrick Devedjian, UMP deputy from an Armenian family. For him, Erdogan forced to change by the Turkish and world opinion, “trying to sidestep the” recognizing the drama without qualifying.
By Philomena BROTH
AFP