The other side of the coin: the growing opposition in turkey against to the european union accession

VI.2.1.1. The Armenian Question
In accordance with the fourth report on Turkey of The European Commission against Racism and Intolerance (ECRI), “the Armenian population in Turkey is estimated at between 50 000 and 93 500 persons”.¹⁰⁷ (ECRI Report on Turkey, 2011: 30) As it is stated, this information is based only to some forecasts. The reason is explained as “It is difficult to ascertain the sizes of the various minority groups living in Turkey at present, as the most recent publicly available official estimates date from 2000 and do not cover all relevant groups”.¹⁰⁸ (ECRI Report on Turkey, 2011: 30) However, even if a possible Armenian population growth, the difference of the stated numbers is very large that does not reflect the reality.
On December 2008, namely two years before from this report, Turkish Ministry of Foreign Affairs submitted a report to the Grand National Assembly of Turkey on December 2008 about the non-Muslim minorities in Turkey that in total there are 89 000 people live in Turkey as minority. These non-Muslim minorities are determined as Armenians, Jews and Greeks.¹⁰⁹ The forecast numbers are differentiated about the Armenian population in Turkey by comparing the ECRI Report. According to report of Turkish Ministry of Foreign Affairs, it is estimated that there are 60 000 of Armenian people in Turkey that 45 000 Armenians live in Istanbul. Besides the Armenian Patriarch of Istanbul, total of 55 churches open for worship (Gregorian, Catholic, and Protestant). As belonging to Armenians, there are one nursery school, seventeen elementary schools and five high schools that 2 thousand 906 students are studying in their own language by 488 teachers who work in these institutions. Furthermore, 52 Armenian Foundations are working freely. The Armenian community publishes 5 newspapers and one magazine, besides having two hospitals. ¹¹⁰
Additionally, Armenian minority is stated “as an important part of Turkish society” on the European Parliament report on Turkey.¹¹¹ By considering Armenian population in Turkey, it can be a mistake to declare “as an important part of Turkish society”. Therefore, Armenian minority can be explained as an important part of non-Muslim communities in Turkey.
On the other hand, the issues between Turkey and Armenia should not be considered as only diplomatic and economic problems that can be experienced between two ordinary countries. Related to events in 1915, Armenians accuse Turkey by claiming assertion of genocide. In order to ensure peace in the bilateral relations, they declare that Turkey should accept this claim. Recognition of this claim by Turkey is Armenians first condition.
So-called Armenian genocide of 1915 come in to question time to time by the EU member states politicians in the context of EU accession of Turkey. In fact, some of the European countries, which are also member states of the EU, unilaterally recognized Armenian claims genocide through their parliaments. As well-known France is one of these countries that requests from Turkey to recognize this claim. In 2005, however, the association Liberté pour l’Histoire (Freedom for History) was founded against to the political intervention in the assessment of events. The association gave its first appeal with the signatures of 19 prominent historians of France. Appeal 2005 clearly specifies that “History is not a religion. Historians accept no dogma, respect no prohibition, ignore every taboo. Historical truth is different from morals. The historian’s task is not to extol or to blame, but to explain. History is not the slave of current issues. History is not memory. History is not a juridical issue. In a free state, neither the Parliament nor the judicial courts have the right to define historical truth. State policy, even with best case will, is not history policy”. ¹¹² Liberté pour l’Histoire determines several French laws as “French Memory Laws” including two laws related to the so-called Armenian genocide.
A bill on so-called Armenian genocide was introduced in France on October 2006 that the people, who deny this, will be punished with one year’s imprisonment and a heavy fine. Even though, the bill was passed from the National Assembly as the lower house of the bicameral French Parliament, but it was blocked by the Senate that it could not be approved.
On May 2011, a similar bill was come out again with the same punishments, but this time, other recognized genocides by France were also included. As a result of these occurrences, there has been crisis on relations between France and Turkey. After passing the bill again from the National Assembly on December 2011, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said that “Today, nobody talks about the 45,000 Algerian deaths in 1945 or the role of France in the massacre of 800,000 people in Rwanda in 1994” by underlining “this bill directly targets the Turkish Republic, the Turkish nation and the Turkish community in France and is seen as hostile”.¹¹³ Even though, Turkish government had warned France for the “serious and irreparable” consequences of the bill;¹¹⁴ after a month, on January 2012 the upper house of the bicameral French Parliament, namely the Senate approved the bill by 127 votes to 86.¹¹⁵ Nonetheless, French court rejected so-called Armenian genocide denial law by stating that “the Council deems the law unconstitutional”. Related with the result, the Turkish Foreign Ministry made a declaration that “…a grave mistake has been corrected by the highest legal authority in France. ... We hope France will from now on be in a constructive attitude for the dispute between Turkey and Armenia on history to be considered on a fair and scientific basis, and will make contributions that support a solution rather than further deepening the problem ... Such an attitude will contribute to the Turkish-French relations to improve in all areas as well”.¹¹⁶
It is necessary to underline here the Fundamental Rights of the European Union which are based on the European Convention on Human Rights and all the member countries of the EU are obliged to apply these rules. In other words; the Fundamental Rights of the European Union took place on the Treaty of Lisbon by making reforms on the Treaty on European Union (the Maastricht Treaty). In comparison to Fundamental Rights of the European Union and the European Convention on Human Rights, it was presented very clearly that Fundamental Rights of the European Union¹¹⁷ is just the similar version of the European Convention on Human Rights.¹¹⁸ Article 10 and 11 on the Fundamental Rights of the EU respectively refer the freedom of thought and freedom of expression while the European Convention on Human Rights present the same rights in detail on Article 9 and 10. In connection with the issue, freedom of expression has crucial important. In both, it is written that “Everyone has the right to freedom of expression. This right shall include freedom to hold opinions and to receive and impart information and ideas without interference by public authority and regardless of frontiers”. ¹¹⁹ In addition to Fundamental Rights of the European Union, however, in Article 10 para 2, it was stated that “the right to conscientious objection is recognised, in accordance with the national laws governing the exercise of this right”. In this context, all the EU member states have right to conscientious objection according to their national law.

In this context, when so-called Armenian genocide is referred by the politicians of the EU’s member states, it is understood, by the people who are against to the membership, as a created obstacle to Turkey’s EU accession process. Consequently, this situation creates the negative effects on the relations between Turkey and the EU by taking into account the growing opposition in Turkey against to the EU accession.