PARIS—French President Emmanuel Macron pledged to add an Armenian Genocide commemoration day to the French calendar, making that promise during his address to the Coordinating Council of Armenians Organizations in France (CCAF) annual gala on Tuesday.
“The fight for justice and recognition is our fight, we are leading it by memory by supporting the Republican calendar of a day for the commemoration of the [Armenian] Genocide,” Macron said in his address, noting that it was essential that the change take place in the coming months. The addition of a commemoration day was one of Macron’s campaign promises during the 2017 French presidential elections.
The event, which was attended by over 500 community members and political figures, including Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo, also featured Member of the Turkish Parliament for the Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) Garo Paylan as a special guest and honoree.
Though Macron vowed last week to visit Armenia in October during the summit of La Francophonie, he said in his address that he would not be traveling to Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh) any time soon, in order to remain an active mediator in the peace negotiations. “I would lose all the good France has done for this conflict as a mediator,” Macron said about his decision not to visit Artsakh.
He did, however, express hope to visit one day, when the conflict is peacefully resolved. “I hope to come with you [to Artsakh] the day we have resolved all this,” Macron noted.
CCAF co-chair and member of the Armenian Revolutionary Federation (ARF) Bureau Mourad (Franck) Papazian said in an interview with Public Radio of Armenia that the French President’s remark regarding Artsakh “indicates that Mr. Macron sees only a pro-Armenian solution to the issue.”
Speaking about his recent meetings with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, Macron said “he engaged in a ‘regular and demanding’ dialogue with Erdoğan, “sometimes away from the media,” and said France needed allies, “including those who do not share our values,” on issues such as terrorism and the migration crisis.
“Of course we agree [on dialogue with Erdoğan], but we want issues of democracy, human rights, and Armenian Genocide recognition to be put on the table,” Papazian told Public Radio of Armenia. “Macron said he was planning to have a comprehensive dialogue with Erdoğan and pledged to raise the Armenian Genocide issue at the meetings.”
Garo Paylan was awarded La médaille Grand Vermeil—Paris’s highest distinction—by Mayor Hidalgo, for contributions to the fight for democracy and human rights in Turkey and around the world.
Speaking about Paylan’s work in Turkey, Macron noted that France “supports the courageous voices that rise,” and admitted that Paylan’s life is danger in Turkey. The two also held a brief meeting during the event, where they discussed issues of human right in Turkey as well as Turkey’s recent military campaign in Syria. According to the European Armenian Federation for Justice and Democracy (EAFJD), both Macron and Paylan expressed concern over the recent developments there.
The following day, Macron warned Turkish authorities that Turkey’s offensive against Kurdish militias in northern Syria cannot become a pretext to invading the country. “If it turns out that this operation takes a turn other than to fight a potential terrorist threat to the Turkish border and becomes an invasion operation, this becomes a real problem for us,” Macon noted in an interview with the French daily Le Figaro on Wednesday.
The Turkish Prime Minister was quick to respond to Macron’s statement, describing his warning as a “crooked view.”
“If France is interpreting this issue as an [invasion], we need to assess what they have done in Syria accordingly,” Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yıldırım told reporters in Beirut. Yıldırım was on a working visit to Lebanon and commented on Macron’s statement during a joint press conference with Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri.
The CCAF annual gala is organized to celebrate the accomplishments of France’s large and vibrant Armenian community, and is attended by the French President every year. Last year, then President Francois Hollande attended the annual dinner for the last time as President of France.
little people always use big words. quiet down turks.
Agree totally. Diane