454) Privilege Call for 'Armenian Genocide' / Trapped Between Lobbyists and French Parliament

The statement issued last week by 19 French historians calling for the cancellation of four laws determined by parliament in relation to historical issues has been finally answered.

Thirty-three people including writers, judges, and researchers, some of whom are of Armenian origin, released a declaration stating, “Let’s not mix everything up.” . . .
Accordingly, the law relating to colonialism, the main reason behind the history debates, may be canceled; however, the other three laws, including the one related to the “Armenian genocide” will not, it is said, because they do not hinder freedom of expression.

Istanbul
December 22, 2005
zaman.com


Trapped Between Lobbyists and French Parliament
The uprising by 19 historians against the parliamentary habit of creating laws about historic events continues in France.

The scientists, releasing a common declaration calling for the cancellation of the historic laws including the one related to the so-called Armenian genocide, continue to harshly criticize the French administration. One such historian, Marc Ferro, says his colleagues feel as if they are being subjected to totalitarian regime practices; French historians are under pressure and their freedoms are being restricted.

The historians on the one hand are being pressured by parliament makes decisions in relation to historical events, while on the other; they are being exposed to pressure from lobbyists calling for the adoption of the said decisions.

Various associations and institutions are pushing French historians to report their version of events and run campaigns in the public calling for the boycott of certain authors.

Ferro says the declaration entitled “freedom for history” shook the agenda of the country, but warns that if the French parliament persists in making history related laws, French history will be shaken in upcoming years.

The French historians are getting organized, Ferro says, they need to come together under a single roof in order to defend their professional rights as well as their freedom of expression.

Ferro claims that the laws implemented by parliament are like the beginning of the process of rewriting history and some of his colleagues have already been taken to court over what they have written.

Despite reactions from the opposition and historians, to date, squashing the laws that were passed by the French parliament in 1990 seems impossible, according to the famous historian.

The Armenians, whose vote has a great deal of potential in France, and the single-line law, “France clearly recognizes the 1915 Armenian genocide,“ which the Armenians now seem unsatisfied with, are exerting efforts to broaden the content of the code.

About five similar bills are pending in the French parliament. According to Ferro, the solution to the issue will emerge with the introduction of comparative history courses at schools instead of a single history course.

History related debates in France started when the French parliament adopted a law in February envisaging the inclusion of positive aspects of French colonial history in school text books. Historians harshly reacted against the law, in particular, historians from the former French colonies. When the discussions became heated, President Jacques Chirac and Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin were forced to issue a statement in relation to the issue saying that writing history was not the job of parliament, but of historians.

Paris
By Ali Ihsan Aydin
December 22, 2005
zaman.com