Sassounian: Sarkozy Joins Obama in Deceit: Neither Should Be Reelected in 2012

Armenians in France and the United States have a common challenge in 2012: to do everything in their power to block reelection of their deceptive presidents.

Neither Nicolas Sarkozy nor Barack Obama kept their promises to their respective Armenian constituents. The French president failed to honor his commitment to support a law penalizing denial of the Armenian Genocide, while the American leader broke his promise to acknowledge the genocide.

The long trail of Obama’s broken promises is well-known, but not many know about Sarkozy’s deception. On Jan. 29, 2001, former French President Jacques Chirac signed into law a decision adopted by the National Assembly on May 29, 1998, and the Senate on Nov. 7, 2000, recognizing the Armenian Genocide. The Armenian community then petitioned the French government to assign a penalty of 45,000 euros and a five-year imprisonment for denial of the genocide, similar to the existing law penalizing denial of the Jewish Holocaust.

This reasonable expectation turned into a major controversy due to Turkish pressure on France and opposition from some French intellectuals who staunchly defended free speech. Under these circumstances, the French government tried to block a vote on this measure in the National Assembly.

The French intellectuals, who objected to this law on grounds of restricting freedom of expression, conveniently ignored the fact that a similar law existed in France since 1990 to punish those who deny the Holocaust. The objections raised by Turkish denialists, on the other hand, were totally absurd. Turkey’s autocratic leaders had no right whatsoever to lecture the French on freedom of expression, while their own country arrests journalists, censors the media, and bans acknowledgment of the Armenian Genocide.

It was unfortunate that some well-intentioned but naive Armenians and their liberal Turkish friends also opposed the proposed law, thereby unintentionally supporting Turkish denialism. They opposed this bill by equating the infamous Article 301 of the Turkish Penal Code banning the acknowledgment of the Armenian Genocide, with the proposed French law penalizing the denial of the genocide. This is a farcical comparison because the Turkish law makes it a crime to tell the truth about the Armenian Genocide, while the French law makes it a crime to lie about it. Why didn’t these liberal Turks and French intellectuals, who claim to support freedom of speech, object to a similar French law penalizing denial of the Holocaust? Doesn’t that law also restrict freedom of speech? Why shouldn’t Armenian Genocide victims be accorded equal protection under French law?

After lengthy debates and delays, the French National Assembly approved the law on penalizing denial of the Armenian Genocide on Oct. 12, 2006, and sent it to the Senate, where it has been stalled until last week.

While Sarkozy was a presidential candidate, he repeatedly promised to support the adoption of this law in the French Senate. But as president, he reversed course and opposed the measure. After coming under intense criticism by Charles Aznavour and the influential French Armenian community, and realizing that he is badly trailing his likely opponents in next year’s presidential election, Sarkozy recently met with several prominent French Armenians and promised not to oppose the bill in the Senate. This was too little too late. After Turkish leaders once again unleashed an intense lobbying campaign, Sarkozy’s political party, the UMP, which holds a majority in the Senate, was instructed by his government to oppose the bill. On May 4, after a three-hour debate, the Senate refused to take up the measure by a vote of 196-74.

The battle for this bill is by no means over. Taking advantage of Sarkozy’s poor rating in the polls, Armenians will now join forces with a majority of French voters to support the Socialist Party’s candidate in next year’s presidential election, just as Armenian Americans are preparing to oppose Obama in the 2012 elections.

In an attempt not to alienate Armenian voters altogether in the upcoming elections, France’s justice minister proposed the formation of a joint commission of Armenians and ministry officials that would bring to the courts’ attention incidents of genocide denial. This is a welcome development and in line with the existing commission on the Holocaust, but French Armenians should still insist on having a law that penalizes denial of the Armenian Genocide.

While politicians, whether in France or the United States, are notorious for breaking their promises, Armenians in both countries can only reach their objectives by pooling their resources and forming a cohesive voting bloc that backs their political supporters and counters their opponents.

Harut Sassounian

Harut Sassounian

California Courier Editor
Harut Sassounian is the publisher of The California Courier, a weekly newspaper based in Glendale, Calif. He is the president of the Armenia Artsakh Fund, a non-profit organization that has donated to Armenia and Artsakh one billion dollars of humanitarian aid, mostly medicines, since 1989 (including its predecessor, the United Armenian Fund). He has been decorated by the presidents of Armenia and Artsakh and the heads of the Armenian Apostolic and Catholic churches. He is also the recipient of the Ellis Island Medal of Honor.

17 Comments

  1. Somehow the article it is not convincing in regards to Mr Sarkozy. However I would agree completely with the disappointing Mr Obama…

  2. Obama is history of course.. actually he was never present in my book so could care less.. he will never get a vote from me and hopefully no Armenian..

    Now I am very much so dissapointed in French… thought they would be more inclined toward Armenians and help us get where we need to but now I come to find out the President and most of his team backed out and did not support the bill.. well i think this is convincing enough don’t you think? I don’t know about you but Sarkozy could have helped…

    Very dissapointed in French govt…

  3. After analyzing the picture from the white house situation room http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/08/weekinreview/08johnson.html it is hard to say if it is up to Obama to decide what he is going to say or do next. Poor guy can’t even get to sit at the head of the table, (not to mention how scared he looks), what can we expect from him?? (At least he was allowed to be there).  Same will apply to the new candidate that would want to replace him.  We need to understand better about who runs this country and expect accordingly.  I think Obama is doing a good job for his employers.  Maybe next time what we need to do is ask the next candidate, before we endorse them, about specifics of his or her promise, such as during which year of which term will they mention the word Genocide, and what will it change when they do??  Maybe we need to publicly ask Joe Biden “HOW MUCH DOES RECOGNIZING THE ARMENIAN GENOCIDE COST?”, since it seems like there is a price for NOT recognizing it.  And also if he has lately received further instructions from Serge Sarkissian about what to do next. 

  4. why don’t we have a demonstration in front of the white house.  that always bring lots of attention and media coverage which we need badly in view of the fact that the turkish lobby is well organized but warped.  this would be free advertising for us.
            gerard

  5. The key is for the grassroots to be active on Armenian ISSUES and not to count on politicians to do the work for us.

    Sarkozy is weak when it comes to Turkey because he wants France and French companies to benefit from natural gas that is transported west by Turkey.

    I hope that Armenian groups endorse no one for president in 2012.  No one of them are worth endorsing.  I hope we have learned our lesson.  But I fear not.  I also think that some Armenians are looking to Samantha Power to be our savior, as she is being talked about as succeeding Hillary Clinton as Sec. of State.  Dream on.  In the final analysis, Samantha Power and her husband Cass Sunstein (Obama’s buddy from their Chicago law school says) who is Obama’s regulatory czar will wind up being as bad as genocide deniers. 
    Can you spell “naive”?   And do you trust the Armenian American media?  I don’t.

  6. Yeah…  As in previous years, our grassroots groups will continue pressing presidents to extract the genocide-word from their mouths, instead of filing lawsuits for the stolen property in Western Armenia. How joyful the Turks should be seeing us not doing this!

  7. Still dependent upon others to move you forward. Try a novel idea for a change…HARD WORK AND NO WHINING! You’ll find that if you follow this one very basic concept, you may actually start being taken seriously and perhaps even garner a semblence of self-respect!

  8. Robert, have a glass of cold water… Geopolitics and size of Armenia—left as a result of your barbarous grandfathers’ crimes—requires us to depend on a mightier power in order to be able to fend off bloodthirsty Turks and Azeris. However, those fought in Artsakh against millions of Turko-Azeris and won were Armenians, not anyone else. Can I in turn ask as to why Turkey has joined NATO? Still dependent upon others to move you forward?   P.S.  A Turk telling Armenians to work hard is hilarious… A Turk whose presidential palace Dolmabache, among dozens of other structures, is designed by Armenian architects. A Turk whose ilk detonated, destroyed, desecrated, or transformed to mosques and sheepfolds architectural marvels built by the Armenians in Western Armenia, tells us to work hard… Hilarious!

  9. Thanks Harut Sassounian keep on top of these events                                                                       we shouldn’t vote for anyone that lies.
     

  10. Robert:
     
     
    Let’s make a deal: you Turks quit NATO, dismantle all the factories in Turkey designed and built by Christian Europeans (e.g. Germans) that produce all the consumer and industrial goods in Turkey, stop using any and all Military hardware conceived, designed, and developed by Christians – Germans, French, British, Italians, Americans, Russians, etc – then you can come here and give us Armenians advice about getting help from others.
     
     
    Even your current country, ‘modern’ Kemalist Turkey would not exist without outside help.
    Your national hero Mustafa Kemal was on the ropes, finished. You know who saved him and your ‘modern’ Kemalist Turkey from being stillborn ? Vladimir Ilyich Lenin and his Bolshevik gang. Without wagonloads of brand-new Mosin-Nagant rifles, Canon, 10s of millions of rounds of ammunition, and gold – Turkey would be a rump little country today.
     
     
    If you Moslem Turks have so much self-respect!’ why is it that you have been knocking at the door of Christian EU, they won’t let you in, and yet you are still at the door asking to be let in ?
     
     
     
    Fact is you ‘proud’ Moslem Turks would be as modern as Afghanistan without massive help from the Christian West, to the tune of 100s of US$ Billions since Turkey joined NATO in 1952. Your country would as prosperous as Turkmenistan without access to the rich markets of the Christian West. Consider that next time you use the phrase self-respect!’.
     

  11. Robert,

    Before you mention anything about self-respect,  ask your self what is it that YOU respect about yourself.  Is it your past or your present? I am sure deep in your heart you know it is NOT the past.  Maybe you are proud of modern day Turkey’s economy, population size, military, etc.  All that is one wind away from destruction, and that is the recognition of the Armenian Genocide.  How long are you going to run away from the truth. 

    The lie can be maintained only for such time as Turkey can shield its people from the political, economic and/or military consequences of the lie. It thus becomes vitally important for Turkey’s government to use all of its powers to repress dissent, for the truth is the mortal enemy of the lie, and thus by extension, the truth is the greatest enemy of your government.

    Let’s see how much longer you turks can carry this burden.  Let’s see how soon you will realize that you are doomed to fail.  

    Let’s see what happens when Mavi Marmara sets to sail to Gaza strip next month. 

  12. Robert, might you know why Turks, licking chops, keep on knocking at the European Union doors? Still dependent upon others to move you forward?

  13. Obama said MEDZ YEGHERN. which is good enough. What difference will it make whether he says Genocide or not? Do you think the next president will say the word? If you believe he will, you are kidding yourself. The issue is to accept that massacre of 1.500,0000 occurred under the Ottomans. Do not get stuck on one word, MOVE ON, there is a lot of work to be done within the Armenian community.

  14. Sonya, fully agree.  Is a U.S. president the one who’d need to tell the world what the world knows? What we, Armenians, know?  There is a huge amount of work to be done in the national and international courts. Reagan said it was genocide, what happened?  Will the word have greater effect than several dozen won lawsuits in the courts? Ugh…

  15. Is it important that the president utters the word ‘genocide’, as important as all else that sonya and paul mention as important. That politicians use us and lie to us, like most recently with Obama, should not surprise us.

  16. Mr. Sassounian’s opinion avoids to discuss some basic facts, for instance:

    1) Several former US presidents made the same promise than Mr. Obama. They did not keep this promise — even Ronald Reagan made a statement in 1983 contradicting his speech of April 1981.

    2) The UMP, Mr. Sarkozy’s party, has not the absolute majority in the Senate since 2004. There are 115 Socialist senators. Only 39 voted against the motion d’irrecevabilité (i.e. for the discussion of the law); 21 voted for the motion (and so against the simple principle to discuss the bill); 49 abstained, including some persons, like Christiane Demontès and Jean-Claude Frécon, who are elected from départements (counties) with an active Armenian community.

    3) The commission of Law of the Senate published a detailed report explaining why the bill, if voted, would be probably censored by the Constitutional Council: http://www.senat.fr/rap/l10-429/l10-429.html Senator Robert Badinter, former secretary to Justice (1981-1986) and former president of the Constitutional Council, gave additional arguments: http://www.senat.fr/seances/s201105/s20110504/s20110504_mono.html#Niv1_SOM3 Mr. Sassounian fails to explain why the committee of Law of the French Senate knows less than him the French jurisprudence.

  17. Arius, why is it important? Does it bear any legal weight? Does it bear any political weight? I doubt so. Those 20+ foreign governments that acknowledged the Armenian Genocide, did they wait for a U.S. president to utter the G-word? Those 40+ U.S. state legislatures that acknowledged the Armenian Genocide, did they wait for a U.S. president to utter the G-word? Our lawsuits for the loss of property—that could have by now been filed in thousands—do they have to wait until a U.S. president deigns to call things by their names? That politicians use us and lie to us should not surprise us, but I think it should provoke a change in the course or at least put more emphasis on things that are result-oriented. Again, Reagan uttered the word in 1981, what essentially happened?

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published.


*