Scratching The Other's Wounds

[Lev7]

By Avirama Golan

 

Ha'aretz, Israel

Oct 22 2006

 

It is fascinating to see how France, time and again, insists on

sticking its refined nose into the affairs of others and preach

wisdom to them, instead of dealing with the boiling kettles on its

own stove. The law against deniers of the massacre of the Armenian

people is still provoking a lively debate in the French press.

 

(France approved the law about two weeks ago by a narrow majority,

following an internal debate over the severity of punishment.) In

Turkey, the French law pushed intellectuals and writers oppressed by

the regime into a corner, compelling them to defend their country.

 

A day after winning the Nobel Prize, the author Orhan Pamuk hurried to

declare that the French law constitutes "a blow to the principles of

freedom of expression that France itself instilled." It is a shame,

Pamuk said, that France does not leave the Turks to do their own

soul-searching, which is occurring in any case. Another Turkish

writer, Elif Shafak, was recently brought to trial in Istanbul for

allegedly "denigrating Turkish national identity" in her latest novel,

"The Bastard of Istanbul," which tells the stories of two families,

Turkish and Armenian. In an article in Le Monde, Shafak asked the

French to allow her nation to "heal the wounds of its history by

itself." Sinan Ulgen, the president of the Turkish think tank Economics

and Foreign Policy Studies (EDAM), argued in an article in Le Figaro,

that "France is weakening democracy in Turkey."

 

This phenomenon is familiar to Israeli writers and intellectuals,

veterans of the fight against the occupation, who stutter in an attempt

to defend their country in the face of a buttressed, superficial,

arrogant and self-righteous European stance. And like the French

left's attack against Israel, which places doubt on the legitimacy of

the state of the Jews, the new legislation derives from a combination

of factors: a historical connection (some of the Armenians who were

murdered during World War I were accused of spying for France),

an elitist lobby of anti-Turkish Armenian immigrants in France,

a desire to embarrass Jacques Chirac and weaken the right, and - at

least among some of the legislators - an innocent aspiration, though

somewhat self-righteous, for tikkun olam [making the world better].

 

The ones seeking to improve the world argue that the Armenian

people have suffered a hardship for 90 years, in addition to what

they experienced during World War I. The denials of the massacre are

indeed an open wound. Turkey is not only to blame. Most of the world is

responsible for belittling the tragedy and shunting it aside. In the

soul-searching that has yet to occur here, the children of Holocaust

refugees will have to examine why it was uncomfortable for them to

recognize the magnitude of the suffering of others. In this sense,

the law ostensibly does justice. But this is misleading, and not only

because the measure was essentially an internal-political one, but

also because even when the French left is correct, it is definitely

not smart.

 

In the introduction to the Hebrew edition of Raymond Aron's "The

Algerian Tragedy," Professor Emmanuel Sivan analyzes this symptom: In

France, he explains, politicians tend to be "frighteningly cynical -

even, and primarily, when speaking loftily about morality - while the

intellectuals tend to be detached 'moralists'." (This brings to mind,

in particular, Albert Camus and his denial of oppression in Algeria

and Jean-Paul Sartre and his support for the USSR in 1956 - A.G.)

Thus, the moralists of the French left had little impact on the war

crimes perpetrated by France in Algeria, while Aron, a centrist who

spoke in the name of realpolitik, significantly contributed to the

effort to convince the French to end the occupation.

 

In the case of the law against deniers of the massacre of the Armenian

people, the French left is again ignoring realpolitik. This only serves

to muffle the internal Turkish debate that finally began to awaken

after years of silence. The French should demonstrate sensitivity for

denials. After all, it has only been a few years since they allowed

references to the "war" in Algeria and lifted censorship from Gillo

Pontecorvo's 1965 film "The Battle of Algiers."

 

Why now of all times, when France is in a tumult over a film exposing a

new affair - the (denied) colonial use of North Africans as soldiers in

World War II - is it so urgent for the left to focus on the Armenians?

 

Perhaps it is because of another, concealed motive related to the

fear of Turkey's entry to the European Union: the fear of Islam,

which the Pope expressed in his native tongue during a visit to his

homeland. This fear is the strongest thread motivating politicians in

Europe today. The French, who are waging a desperate battle against

head scarves and the teenagers in the suburbs, are on the eve of a

dramatic election campaign and its perennial X-factor, Jean-Marie

Le Pen, who threatens again to conjure up the dark ghosts and fears

simmering on the republic's ideological periphery.

 

An Islamic Turkey frightens the French, and the fear makes them

forget smart realpolitik. If Raymond Aron were alive today, perhaps

he would explain to the citizens of his country that the order of the

day is actually to bring Turkey closer, help it prosper, encourage

its democracy, and reinforce the voices of Pamuk and his colleagues.

 

The insult and enmity now engendered in Turkey as a result of the

French legislation were unnecessary.

 

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/777575.html

[Lev7]

I don't see news headlines in Israel criticising France for adopting a similiar resolution regarding the Holocast. This insensitivity towards other people's sufferings will eventually come back and bite them

[Hellektor]

:furious: My two cents worth...

[phantom22]

Plus not a peep about Article 301!

 

 

I don't see news headlines in Israel criticising France for adopting a similiar resolution regarding the Holocast. This insensitivity towards other people's sufferings will eventually come back and bite them

[gamavor]

....and she/he has the "balls" to critisize France for leftist ignorance of real politik? Isn't the law about the Holocaust equally anti-freedom of speech? Does she ever question the real reason why French adopted such a law? Was their holocaust ever denied officially by anybody? Yet, France made it a crime to deny the holocaust. But when it comes to denial of other peoples' suffering - it is not OK, because they are not the "choosen"! MY ASS!