By: Ara Toranian
My only adversary, that of France, has never ceased to be money,” said General de Gaulle 42 years before Francois Hollande follows suit by stating “my opponent is the world of finance. ” But now are these proclamations of 
faith? In a world that sinks into crisis, material values tend irresistibly to outweigh those of ideals. And measure than advanced this “adversary” designated a certain France weakens. This strengthening of the weight of the economy on the political decision which we see the devastation in many areas obviously weighs on Armenia riddled with corruption. But it is not without consequence either on the Armenian cause. Turkish and Azerbaijani states whose incomes are steadily rising, have understood the political benefits they could derive from this situation. We measured the damage in France last year with the work of the Institute of the Bosphorus, whose reins are held by the President of AXA, one of the makers of the CAC forty. This lobby set up by Ankara has succeeded in mobilizing enough elected to invalidate the law Boyer, leaving the Armenians without legal protection to face denial and weakening the defenses of the company vis-à-vis this scourge.
But this is not all. The anti-Armenian lobbying crusade of this already very powerful in terms of resources is currently receiving support from the Aliev regime that prides interfere also in French politics. In an article in late February on Eurasianet, journalist Régis Genté, makes a suggestive parallel between cultural grants from Baku to a number of French towns and positioning pro-Aliyev regime of their elected representatives. He notes with irony and coincidence between investments Baku in the church of the charming town of Bellou-sur-Huisne in Orne, in the Notre-Dame Cathedral in Strasbourg or in the Azerbaijani cultural center of the seventh district Paris (60 million Euros), and decision pro-Azerbaijani position Nathalie Goulet, Jean-Marie Bockel and Rachida Dati, the respective elected representatives of these districts pampered by oil money. This logic is also found in the recent rapprochement between Paris and Ankara. It will not have escaped anyone that indeed the French agreement on the opening of a new chapter of negotiations between Europe and Turkey intervened in the wake of travel in this country of Nicole Bricq, Minister of Foreign Trade . And a number of political commercials were made in favor of this trip.
France is of course not the only one concerned by deals politico-economic nature which will compromise the state deficit and promote those who wade in corruption. Mexico has cost it a few months of this type of experience, with the erection sponsored Baku a statue in honor of Heydar Aliyev, the Azerbaijani dictator, next to those of Gandhi or Abraham Lincoln on one of the most prestigious places of the capital. It took the mobilization of NGOs and local intellectuals for its debunking.
These situations are not without problems in terms of ethics and democracy. In France, they put squarely on the “Armenian part” of the country. By the adverse effects of uncontrolled globalization, our community is facing, even where she found refuge in these hatreds that had previously constrained to flee their land, that of his ancestors. But this is not all, ghosts of the past return exacerbates another fear, more generally. To see that the mechanisms of democracy eventually yield to the influence of money king. Thus, in this report inherent influence in the European process, it would not be the Western States would come to their common principles structurally revisionist state, but one which, haggling in pass duties imposed, would eventually rub off on those it embraces to stifle better. And it is not an Armenian nightmare. Authentic Turkish democrats and lovers of this country denounce these incentives to the Erdogan regime, while all indicators relating to human rights turn red. So how to explain this nonsense? A miracle of democracy or corruption?