The recent cancellation of a genocide bill that had occupied the French national agenda for around three months sparked not only negative reactions from Armenia but also talk that the outcome was the result of the French state bowing to pressure from Turkey.

At the same time, though, Armenia is also asserting that the whole experience has been not a loss but a very good example, and that French President Nicolas Sarkozy is in fact a leader who stands behind his promises.

According to Armenian political authorities and experts, the step taken by France with regards to the 1915 events was very effective in making its mark and also led the larger global public to begin perceiving the “Armenian Genocide” as a great crime against humanity, much the same way the Holocaust is perceived. But while Armenian Foreign Minister Edward Nalbandian has noted that, for Yerevan, it is enough to simply see the French people staking out their position on the side of human rights, Dashnak Party spokesperson Giro Manoyan has asserted that France wound up bowing to Turkish pressure and said that efforts would be again be exerted towards this end.

And thus not only the events of 1915 but also the Armenian-Azeri clashes on the eve of the collapse of the Soviet Union have been reintroduced to the agenda, with the aim to elicit reverberations from these events on the international platform. One day after the Khojaly march in İstanbul on Feb. 26, perceived by many as an effort to isolate Armenia within the larger region, there was the “Sumgayıt march” in Yerevan. As part of this there were a series of commemorations for the Armenians killed in clashes that occurred in February 1988 in the Azerbaijani city of Sumgayıt, and the Armenian parliament, signaling that it will not allow this tragic event to be erased from the public conscience anywhere, stood for a moment of silence for the people killed in Sumgayıt. At the same time, an effort has been made to label the events in Sumgayıt as “genocide,” with the message being given that there was a purposeful attempt in Azerbaijan to completely eliminate the Armenians living there. Propaganda countering claims about the Khojaly massacre, as well as the introduction of the 1988 events in Sumgayıt, are important signals regarding new items that are being introduced into Armenia's political agenda.READ MORE