Jump to content


Photo
- - - - -

Bizarre Court Verdict: French-Armenian


  • Please log in to reply
No replies to this topic

#1 Yervant1

Yervant1

    The True North!

  • Super Moderator
  • PipPipPipPipPip
  • 21,603 posts
  • Gender:Male

Posted 12 March 2013 - 11:25 AM

Bizarre Court Verdict: French-Armenian
Guilty of Defaming a Turkish Denialist!

By Harut Sassounian
Publisher, The California Courier

The Empire Strikes Back, not in a science fiction movie, but in a French court!
For several years, the French-Armenian community has been trying to pass a
law to penalize Armenian Genocide denial, similar to the law that sanctions
Holocaust denialism. Even though the French Parliament and Senate have
approved such a law, and both Pres. Hollande and former Pres. Sarkozy have
supported it, the Armenian efforts have been aborted by powerful Turkish
political and economic circles.
Turning the proposed law on its head, Sirma Oran-Martz, a French citizen of
Turkish origin, had filed a lawsuit in France against Laurent Leylekian, a
French-Armenian, for defamation of character. Leylekian, former editor of
"France-Armenie" magazine and former executive director of the
European-Armenian Federation for Justice and Democracy, had written a
sarcastic editorial titled, "Martz Attack" in the magazine's website,
denouncing attempts to transplant Turkish denialism to French soil.
Ironically, Oran-Martz is daughter of Prof. Baskin Oran who resides in
Turkey and acknowledges the facts of the Armenian Genocide without using
that term because Turkish law penalizes those who recognize the Genocide.
In a shocking verdict last month, the court found Leylekian guilty,
ordering him to pay a total of 7,500 euros ($10,000): 4,000 euros to Oran-
Martz for moral damages, and 3,500 euros for court costs, despite her
evasive and irrational testimony during the proceedings. She had lost an
earlier court case after suing Jean-Paul Bret, the Mayor of Villeurbanne,
who had requested that she acknowledge the Armenian Genocide before
agreeing to include her in his party's candidate list. She refused and
withdrew from the race. In that verdict, the court referred to the Turkish
state's "vast program of denialism -- powerful, perverse, and
sophisticated" -- a sentence later quoted by Leylekian in his editorial.
Three prominent individuals testified in court on Leylekian's behalf:
Francois Rochebloine, a French Parliamentarian; Yves Ternon, renowned
expert on genocide and denial; and Hilda Tchoboian, former Chairwoman of
the European-Armenian Federation for Justice and Democracy. Oran-Martz was
accused by Leylekian of taking part in a protest by the Turkish extremist
Grey Wolves group against an Armenian Genocide Monument in Lyon, France,
and signing a petition against the law on genocide denial. Testifying on
behalf of Oran-Martz were: Murat Erpuyan, director of Paris-based ATA
Turquie Association; Maxime Gauin, a French researcher working at a
denialist Think Tank in Ankara; Alain Mascarou, a retired French teacher
who knew the plaintiff in Ankara; and her husband, Jean-Patrick Martz.
Hopefully, Leylekian would be vindicated when he appeals this outrageous
guilty verdict. Clearly, the judge has made a mockery of French justice by
siding with a genocide denialist, while punishing a descendant of Armenian
Genocide victims. By condemning Leylekian for ostensibly defaming
Oran-Martzin an editorial, the judge has chosen to deny him free
speech, especially a
journalist's right to express his views in an opinion column. Surely, the
French judge knows the difference between an opinion piece and a news item!
Furthermore, the judge ignored the public prosecutor's request not to file
criminal charges against Leylekian and to refrain from sentencing him.
It is ironic that while the French-Armenian community is trying to penalize
genocide deniers, an Armenian is being sued by a denialist Turk. This topsy-
turvy state of affairs makes the best case as to why the French government
should pass a law banning genocide denial.
While Oran-Martz gave incoherent answers in court, frequently irritating
the judge, Leylekian provided clear, concise, and convincing arguments in
his defense. This is why his guilty verdict was completely unexpected.
Could it be that the long arm of Turkish influence peddling has reached
into the French judicial system?
After losing her first lawsuit against the Mayor of Villeurbanne three
years ago, Oran-Matz vowed to continue her legal battle by announcing that
this was "only the first round." It is imperative that the verdict against
Leylekian be reversed through an appeal filed by a competent, high-powered
lawyer in order to right this miscarriage of justice and put a stop to more
anti-Armenian lawsuits by Turkish denialists.
The French-Armenian community should not remain silent, but express its
outrage in the strongest possible terms against this unjust verdict and
demand that the judge be disciplined for violating French laws and
insulting the memory of genocide victims.
It is high time Armenians show some resolve to defend their rights in
France and elsewhere, particularly on the eve of the 100th anniversary of
the Armenian Genocide!




0 user(s) are reading this topic

0 members, 0 guests, 0 anonymous users