What did outgoing president Hollande promise the community?
Recently annual dinner of Co-ordination Council of Armenian organisations of France (CCAF) was launched with the participation of French president Francois Hollande. During the evening together with representatives of the Armenian Community, outgoing and pro-Armenian French president Francois Hollande also delivered a speech. Like in former evenings, this time Hollande also gave promises to the representatives of the Armenian Community. 168.am interviewed Vartan Kaprielian, representative of Chamber of Commerce and Industry of the Republic of Armenia in France, who took part in the annual dinner.
On account of the fact that this was the last evening with the participation of Hollande, which was it marked by?
The dinner and the meeting can be qualified as a meeting of loyalty. Throughout the years of his presidency Hollande tried and did everything, which might have been anticipated from the president of the republic. On the whole, desperation may be expressed, as the bill criminalizing Armenian Genocide denial, anticipated by the Armenians in France, despite its success in the National Assembly and Senate, was refused by the Constitutional court, about which president of France mentioned in his speech. He expressed his loyalty to the people of Armenia, stated that struggle of Armenian people is developing, there is much work to do, that fight will pass from generation to generation. He also touched upon people of Armenia as the best in France, meaning people’s behavior, posture, benefit to France.
It’s also noteworthy that he appeared with a new proposal and promise, which doesn’t depend on the Constitutional court. He intends to declare in France a commemoration day of Genocides and crimes against humanity. After the meeting I talked to him and he stated that the day will be declared prior to May and it should take place pursuant presidential decree, and that very day will be marked as Armenian Genocide commemoration day, for which a commission has been developed.
Francois Hollande also touched upon Armenian president Serzh Sargsyan’s visit to Paris scheduled on March 8. He clearly mentioned in his speech that the right of self-determination of people of Artsakh is important to France, and stated that after the meeting he’ll meet Aliyev and as OSCE MG Co-Chair will do everything possible to reach peace.
In your opinion, where reasons of the bill failure should be sought on account of the fact that in the period of his presidency Hollande promised to develop a document, which should be denied by the Constitutional court, however, the last bill, which according to experts, did not only relate to the Genocide, but was refused? Why did these promises by Hollande have that fate?
According to many analysts, politicians, in particular, Armenian Community leadership, that verdict is beyond legal borders and is linked to political influences. We remember, although in 2012 the very Constitutional court denied that bill, it turned out that the Constitutional court had at least one Turkish connections, in particular with business circles, facts of which we uncovered and the member didn’t deny it, i.e. that decision was coordinated with the Turkish side at least on the level of one Constitutional court member. This is utter violation.
If we uncovered the case linked to one person, it gives a reason to consider in both cases it was denied for political reasons and Turkish powerful lobby has worked, also pressures of big French companies and other political circumstances, as a result of which the Constitutional court made not a legal decision, but one linked to political influences.
If this decisions has political reasons, and Turkish factor is rather influential, doesn’t this mean that this idea should be withdrawn and other priorities should be defined, as some representatives of the Armenian community insist on covering Artsakh issue, raise France –Azerbaijan military cooperation issue?
These representatives today face the issue of solving personal issues. Those very people were involved in this struggle and as they aren’t on the frontline of that struggle, they raise such issues. However, we have numerous fronts and Artsakh is a priority among them, around which Armenians in France never stopped working.
However, it’s also correct that Genocide issue has centralized power and possibilities on it for a rather long period. Artsakh should be a priority today, however, it would be not correct to consider that due to two failures issues linked to Genocide should be referred to the past, as our victory is the lasting struggle. If we stop, it’ll show that we have no resources, we didn’t believe in fairness of our struggle.
What’s your assessment to Francois Hollande’s presidency from the perspective of steps taken toward Armenia’s issues? In your opinion will Armenian Genocide commemoration day be declared?
I want to observe a reason preventing Hollande to make this decision prior to the end of his presidency. However, I don’t have additional information either to state for sure. I’d like to remind expression by Charles Aznavour during the annual dinner, “we’ll regret after president like Hollande,” to the sense that Hollande did so much for the people of Armenia.
He visited Turkey and touched upon the Genocide, met Hrant Dink’s widow, despite Turkish pressures, he became an unwelcome guest to the ceremony of commemoration of the Centennial of the Armenian Genocide and before the statue of Komitas one year ago he decided to launch the centennial in Tsitsernakaberd, and by the way he was the only leader from the West. After the first failure of the law on denial, he undertook the second step with a new text and despite that text didn’t reach success, due to his participation in the struggle, our case was in the foreground.
When Armenia turned away from the EU and made a decision to join the EEU, despite anger of all EU member countries, Hollande stated that Armenia is worth EU’s attention, that Armenia’s direction to EEU should be comprehended out of various reasons and this shouldn’t become a reason that EU suspended its relations and punished Armenia, that France should become Armenia’s ambassador to the EU.
Thus, in the forthcoming weeks negotiations on Armenia-EU framework agreement will be finalized, i.e. Hollande’s role in this is evident. To conclude, let me state that we are touching upon the president of France, the president of the 5th powerful country in the world.
By Araks Martirosyan
