One Problem with France

It is not news that many Turks do not call what happened to Armenians at the hands of the Ottomans nearly a century ago a “genocide.” But very infrequently does this ongoing tension, usually an exaggerated rivalry of lobby groups and personal vendettas, escalate to actual state action.

We saw one of these instances last week when an Armenian Genocide bill passed through the French Senate. The bill, which while approved by parliament has yet to be signed by President Nicolas Sarkozy, would make it a crime for any individual to deny that it did, in fact, happen.

Thought Police, sure–I could write volumes on that aspect. But it certainly provoked a high-profile reaction from the Turkish government. In December, when the bill was first passed by the lower house of the French Parliament, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan recalled Turkey’s ambassador to France, suspended political and economic talks–high-profile themselves due to Turkey’s jostling for admittance to the EU–, and closed Turkish airspace and waterways to French military craft.

On Tuesday, when the bill finally gained the approval of the French Senate, Erdogan pulled out all diplomatic stops. He threatened to pursue allegations of France’s own alleged (and quite well-documented) genocide in Algeria in the 1950s and 1960s, and made it clear that he would bar new state-to-state contracts with France.

Is the bill, as Erdogan has declared it, a “massacre of free thought”? Certainly, by American standards. But Turkey’s top-down, unrelenting insistence on this issue might also massacre Turkey’s geopolitical benefits. Sure, Turkey may not be angling for EU acceptance as hard as many believe. But if it wants to keep reaping the benefits of Western investment and political inclusion, especially in a world where many are both ready and willing to forgive a nation for past transgressions, it’s going to need to try a gentler approach.