The reception of President Erdogan on Friday, January 5th (Armenian Christmas Eve) is causing trouble among the Armenian community in France. The defenders of democracy, human rights and minorities fear that France will not show sufficient firmness in the face of the Turkish President who has taken good care, for several years, to multiply insults and provocations against of Europe and its leaders. Moreover, this visit to France comes in a climate fraught with threats against the representatives of the Armenian communities and Turkish opponents refugees in Europe, as reported on December 20 a statement from Garo Paylan deputy HDP.
The President of the Republic promised to address the issue of human rights during his meeting with his Turkish counterpart. The French of Armenian origin, in the grip of the Ankara maneuvers that made the export of the genocide denial of 1915 a priority of his foreign policy, expect no less. In particular, they ask Emmanuel Macron not to dodge the problem of the Armenian genocide which is at the root of the criminal and expansionist pursuits of successive Turkish regimes for a hundred years. A fascinating tradition which unfortunately finds today in Mr. Erdogan a worthy heir.
Thus, 5 years later, almost to the day, the assassination of three Kurdish activists in Paris, in which the justice had pointed out the involvement of the Turkish secret services, is preparing to roll out the red carpet in front of the head of this Genocidal state even before becoming a terrorist and a liberticide? Because we are not mistaken: the terrible repression of which the people of Turkey and the democrats of this country are paying the price today, is part of a long tradition of political persecution, which reached its peak with the genocide of the Armenians, but which has also resulted in successive massacres against the Christian, Greek, Assyrian-Chaldean, Kurdish, Alevi, Turkish Democrat minorities, not to mention the occupation of Cyprus, a member of the European Union. The big powers and Europe bear a heavy responsibility in this situation. The international complacency towards all these crimes nourishes indeed for one hundred years the arrogance of a power which does not cease to taunt the democracies, to trample on their values, while claiming themselves unduly of their camp. The liabilities are heavy for Turkey.
Violence and duplicity are at the heart of the actions of this state, including against France, as evidenced by the fact that, in addition to the murder of Kurdish activists in Paris, the arrests in the form of hostages taken against French journalists in 2016 and 2017. What’s more – should we call him back? – its ultra-nationalism, with its 20-year history of Islamism, poses a threat to its neighbors, in particular the Republic of Armenia, against which the Turkish state is blockading and continues to spread hatred. This situation also requires a response from the highest officials of the international political scene.
CCAF National Office (Coordinating Council of Armenian Organizations in France