History Requires Conscience Not Law

Journalists Etyen Mahcupyan, Hrant Dink and Ragip Zarakolu have issued a joint statement in which they have said the "Draft law to Punish the Denial of the Armenian Genocide" to be tabled by the French parliament on Thursday" is the consequence of a repressive mentality and outside the bounds of "a democratic mind", such is the article 301 and other legislation in Turkey.

The statement said the law that's being proposed in France was, in principle and ethically "illegal" and was as diseased as the reflex reactions Turkey are developing in a nationalist viewpoint.

"In a period such as this where the communities are in such a great effort to undertand each other, reciprocal political tactics are treason to the forming of a more peaceful and just mutual world" the statement said. "We invite those involved to show common sense".

The three intellectuals, two of them leading names in the Armenian-Turkish community, said that the West had in the past carried a great responsibility "in exhausting the relationship between Armenia and Turkey" and stressed that the duty of these countries now was to re-initiate relations between the two peoples, find ways of solution and to support these by compensating for past mistakes.

Rights Being Violated

The statement of the intellectuals coincided with a letter sent this week by the Human Rights Association (IHD) and Turkey's Human Rights Foundation (TIHV) to the International Human Rights Federation (FIDH) based in France.

Signed by IHD Chairman Yusuf Alatas and TIHV Chairman Yavuz Onen, the letter expressed concern that the Armenian Genocide bill was a severe violation to the freedom of expression and that if the draft was passed, there were fears it would lead to rights violations in enforcement.

The IHD and TIHV letters said the draft was setting a world-wide precedent to lifting the freedom of expressing opinions and that it threatened the freedom of expression both in France and in Turkey.

"It cannot be accepted in the view of human rights for an event that has taken place in Turkey in the past to be exploited in France for political purposes or electoral concerns" the letter said,

It recognized that there were things to be done in Turkey both in the official and civilian fields due to the "tragic incidents that the Armenian people have lived through in the past" and asked FIDH to actively work to stop the draft and to share these views with the French Parliament.

(EO/KO/TK/II/YE)