3354) François Hollande And The Turks

Maxime Gauin

There is a historical trend in the main Socialist leaders of France alternating their attitudes vis-à-vis the Turks, especially if the Armenian question is involved. Jean Jaurès (1859-1914) diffused the Armenian nationalist propaganda in the 1890s, in ignorance, then . . . met the Young Turks and became, until his death, their loyal friend. The first years of François Mitterrand’s presidency were marked by a serious crisis (1981-1984), but it was very quickly resolved and followed by years (1985-2000) of good relations.

However, this is perhaps the first time that the victory of a Socialist provokes both satisfaction and concern, from a Franco-Turkish perspective. For the Turks, the main sensitive points are: French awareness (or lack thereof) of Turkey’s growing importance; the Turkish candidacy for European Union membership; the cooperation against terrorism (chiefly the PKK); the situation of Turkish immigrants in France; and the Armenian question

Mr. Hollande understands the strategic and economic role of Turkey. He wrote in his book Le Rêve Français (The French Dream, 2011) that negotiations between the EU and Turkey must be “fairly” (loyalement) pursued, until their conclusion. He criticized Mr. Sarkozy several times for his radical opposition to Turkish candidacy. Despite the persistent ignorance of some Socialist leaders about the PKK, there is no reason to fear that the Franco-Turkish agreement against organized crime, signed in October 2011, will suffer. Mr. Hollande was elected on a program of national unity and reconciliation in a rejection of the anti-immigrant demagogy. He even promised to present a reform giving non-EU citizens the right to vote in municipal elections.

Consequently, it is clear that only the Armenian question represents a serious subject of concern, which must be neither underestimated nor overestimated. Turkey and Turks are paying the cost of more than ten years (1997 until the late 2000s) of passivity and ineffectiveness vis-à-vis Mr. Hollande, ten years largely used by the Armenian Revolutionary Federation (ARF) for its proper agenda. Even the staunch support of the ARF for the Nazis, or the terrorist tradition of this party, were not used as an argument for years. Turkey and Turks are also paying for the more than twenty years (from the beginning of 1990s to today) almost without translation of any scholarly work rebutting the “Armenian genocide” allegations into French. Regardless, is it too late? No.

Among the close friends of Mr. Hollande, you have not only members of the ARF, but also several MPs who gave their signature to send the Boyer bill to the Constitutional Council. Mr. Sarkozy tried until the end to prevent these applications from being presented. Mr. Hollande eventually renounced the pressuring the MPs of his party, after a few days. Mr. Hollande’s recent speeches given to Armenian associations, in Marseille and Paris, were published only by Armenian websites, not by his campaign site or by the Socialist Party.

The current situation of both national and European jurisprudence is another reason to be quite optimistic. The decision of the Constitutional Council destroying the Boyer bill was based on the principle of law, not a formal, secondary problem. It leaves very little possibility for a new attempt. The Court of Justice of the European Union decided in 2003 (first instance) and 2004 (appeal) that the European Parliament’s resolution regarding the Armenian “genocide” had no legal value. The European Parliament itself has reversed its views since 2007.

In conclusion, a lot of work remains, but Mr. Sarkozy’s defeat most likely marks the beginning of a new spring in Franco-Turkish relations. A coordinated effort of information and education, which would neglect no issue, is needed and would be very fruitful.

Maxime Gauin is a researcher at the International Strategic Research Organization (USAK) and a Ph.D. candidate at the Middle East Technical University Department of History.

May/14/2012
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Reader Comments

B Medic
5/18/2012
It is very positive that France's attitude towards a Turkish membership of EU may very well change with Hollande as president, both for EU, but especially for Turkey. Turkey now has every opportunity to prove that the country can be a true modern state that deals with its issues in a really democratic way and not just an authoritarian banana republic as it was the 1980s and 90s.

V Tiger
5/17/2012
'I am waiting since months some replies from the Armenian side to my articles'.Review of Armenian Studies,Review of International Law and Politics,International Review of Turkish Studies are all Turkish government funded organizations & their aim is very well known which is to distort history with lies.I am not an academic but a simple offspring of 2nd generation of Genocide survivors.With your rubbish articles if you consider yourself an academic then you definitely do not need any bones thrown

V Tiger
5/17/2012
'Since 1986, Turks found thousands of skeletons of Muslims killed by Armenians in Anatolia, from 1915 to 1918.'It is not enough for you to steal our land,culture,heritage & NOW YOU STEAL OUR MASSACRED?About Armenian mass graves in the Varto region,read: Rebel Land: Among Turkey's Forgotten Peoples by Christopher de Bellaigue,p111 valley of Newala Ask.Shame on you.

V Tiger
5/17/2012
Have you heard about 'Armenian Genocide Memorial Church, Der Zor'?Google it.

V Tiger
5/17/2012
812th battalion were composed of Soviet Armenian POW-s similar to Turkistanische Legion,Azerbaijani Legion,The Georgian Legion (1941-1945). Hungry POW-s. The legion, like other Turkic and Caucasian forces formed by the Germans, has been described by one military historian as "poorly armed, trained, and motivated," and was "unreliable and next to useless."

sam stevens
5/17/2012
Well said Jack. Turkey seems to have a policy of never recognise, never apologise. They will cannot be fully accepted until they realise this. For heavens sake just look at the constant demands for apologies from the Israelis & bitterness seen towards them for nine deaths,Turkey is a hypocrite of the first order.


Maxime Gauin
5/16/2012
“Maxime,when you quote a point you have to take it in its entirety.” I replied about the 812th Armenian battalion of Wermacht. This was the point. “You will always be scrutinized.”

Wonderful. I am waiting since months some replies from the Armenian side to my articles published by academic journals (Review of Armenian Studies, Review of International Law and Politics, International Review of Turkish Studies).

Maxime Gauin
5/16/2012
“We want to excavate them from the mass graves & give them proper burial.”

The totalitarian dictatorship which rules Syria since decades is a great friend of the Armenian Revolutionary Federation—logical: the origin of the Baas party is a pro-Nazi group, and the ARF was vehemently pro-Nazi as well. Why was there not a single attempt to find corpses of Armenians since decades, in Syria? Since 1986, Turks found thousands of skeletons of Muslims killed by Armenians in Anatolia, from 1915 to 1918.

V Tiger
5/16/2012
Maxime, when you quote a point you have to take it in its entirety.Christopher Walker's 'Armenian The Survival of a Nation' the subject starts from p354 'The Second World War' & ends p360.That is why your article is biased as you only choose bits that suit your aims & targets of the propaganda machine USAK that pays your salary.You will always be scrutinized.

V Tiger
5/16/2012
US Observer,we want all that you've mentioned plus justice to the massacred so that they rest in peace.We want to excavate them from the mass graves & give them proper burial.We want to put an end of this saga & lies.

Maxime Gauin
5/16/2012
So, V Tiger you do not contest anymore the alliance of the ARF with the Nazis, and the participation of the 812th Armenian Batallion of the Wermacht on the Eastern Front. Good. Now, you attack Turkey. The polemics on the “Sturma” affair were definitely settled by the late Prof. Stanford J. Shaw, using both Turkish and British sources (Turkey and the Holocaust: Turkey's role in rescuing Turkish and European Jewry from Nazi persecution, 1933-45, New York-London, NYU Press/MacMillan Press, 1993).

US Observer
5/15/2012
I just want to know what the Pro Armenian genocide people hope to accomplish? What do they really want? Money...land? What if Turkey did say that it happened, so what? What will you have to complain about then?

V Tiger
5/15/2012
Turkey declined thousands of asylum requests by German Jews; how 600 Czechoslovakian Jews on board the vessel “Parita” were turned down; and how 768 passengers on the Romanian vessel “Struma,” after being kept waiting off Istanbul for weeks in poverty and hunger, were sent to death in the Black Sea by Turkish authorities, with only one survivor in the winter of 1942.)

Jack Manougian
5/15/2012
There is no "Armenian Question", only Armenian Genocide. The reason why Turkey is losing the PR battle it's because it does not have a case. Truth will always win.

Chris Green
5/15/2012
In fact, Tiger, Turkey was officially neutral during WW2 and furthermore, it has recently been shown that Hitler had Turkey on his list of countries to invade! I do not think that Turkey should invest too much more time either with the French or EU!

V Tiger
5/15/2012
Soviet Armenia lost 300000 soldiers fighting the Nazis

V Tiger
5/15/2012
See also the following legions in the same POW position: Turkistanische Legion Azerbaijani Legion The Georgian Legion (1914-1918)

V Tiger
5/15/2012
Poor Jean Jaures that he was killed in 1914 & did not witness what his 'friends' namely as you say Young Turks committed the 1st Genocide against the Armenians.If only he survived one more year...

V Tiger
5/15/2012
The Israeli scholar Yair Auron has noted that Turkish nationalist efforts to thwart recognition of the Armenian Genocide have resulted in the dissemination of various Turkish propaganda publications in regards to the Armenian Legion

V Tiger
5/15/2012
The Armenian and Georgian battalions were ultimately sent to the Netherlands as a result of Adolf Hitler's distrust for them, and due further to low morale and poor training, many of them deserted, defected or revolted.[1] The legion, like other Turkic and Caucasian forces formed by the Germans, has been described by one military historian as "poorly armed, trained, and motivated," and was "unreliable and next to useless."[

Maxime Gauin
5/15/2012
There is no simplification. The judgment of the European Court on the European Parliament's resolution of 1987 are available online, in English and in French. Once again, about the Armenians and the Nazis, Christopher Walker, a staunch supporter of the "Armenian genocide" allegation, unequivocally wrote: "The 812th Battalion was operational in the Crimea and the North Caucasus." ("Armenia. The Survival of a Nation", London-New York: Routledge, 1990, p. 357).

V Tiger
5/15/2012
On whose side was Turkey fighting during WW2?A whole country was pro-Nazi & not a small party.

de Wit Hans A.
5/14/2012
Mr. Gauin, this is not a game between some PhD students, your allegations, de facto slander, is serious business. And I am not even going to react on your simplifications of ECHR ruling regarding the Armenian Democide. You are not entitled.

Maxime Gauin
5/14/2012
To my knowledge, the scholars who produced the most detailed analysis of the alliance between the ARF and the Nazis are Gaïdz Minassian (just see the name) and Georges Mamoulia. Mr. Mamoulia is a Ph.D. student of Claire Mouradian. It would be hard to find in the French academia somebody who is more anti-Turkish than Ms. Mouradian.

Ergun Kirlikovali
5/14/2012
Maxime Gauin write a factual and insughtful essay. We have left, for too long, the task of identifying the Turk and Turkish history to anti-Turks. Do you think any Armenian lobbysist would mention, even in passing, the tiniest hint about Armenian complicty in war crimes and hate crimes committed by Armenian gangs like ARF, Hunchaks, Ramgavars, and many other armed, militant, viciously violent groups? Franco-Turkish relations must be purged of Armenian propaganda if closure on WWI is sought.

de Wit Hans A.
5/14/2012
d) and to make it complete: Hitler found Christians (and that includes Armenians) despicable. He relied more on Muslim battalions as Hitler had a weakness for Islam. This put your whole research in a different spotlight, or not, Mr. Gauin?

V Tiger
5/14/2012
Personal attacks are justified when the author writes rubbish without any justification & above all verification:for example ARF's staunch support for Nazis or its terrorist tradition?Hollande & the French socialist party are dumbos & do not know with whom they are dealing?With a pro Nazi party with terrorist tradition?

de Wit Hans A.
5/14/2012
b) its well know that Turkish propaganda publications in regards to this Armenian Legion only serves to misled the public opinion and not serves the academic debate on this. And Mr. Gauin, I am not an Armenian but I dislike lies and lousy research.

de Wit Hans A.
5/14/2012
a) I advice M. Gauin, to check with the Anne Frank Found about the Armenian 812 Batalion which was sent to the Netherlands during WW2. Check with Joris Versteeg who has written intensely about the Georgian and Armenian bat. and Bosnian (Waffen SS!!!)

Red Tail
5/14/2012
Turkey is perfectly capable to decide how to respond the the French Armenian issue. If we want to ruin the relationships with France because of it, then we can do that. But we can also decide not to ruin the relationship. We can do what is best for Turkey and the Turks and it is our own governments responcibility to make that decision. It is not only up to France to decide how the relationship should be. See for example France and Germany. They work well together despite history.

Maxime Gauin
5/14/2012
It is always funny to read the replies of a certain kind of Armenian readers. No argument, directly personal attacks.

V Tiger
5/14/2012
USAK is a Turkish funded organization & Maxime needs to live & to get paid to write such rubbish.ARF support for Nazis? Any more rubbish? Armenian Genocide denial dossier has nothing to do with ARF or any Armenian party but only with truth & it stays open

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