Why did politicians in France wait until 2001 to write a law on the so-called Armenian genocide? France is the biggest obstacle to Turkey''s EU membership. We know this from its stance when decisions were taken about Turkey''s EU membership talks. France was among the EU countries which was most opposed to the European Constitution. When people talk about a `train crash` on the way to the EU, everybody thinks of the possibility of our membership being rejected through a referendum in France. France is different from all the other European countries. However, Turkey might be one of the closest countries to it. Ottoman intellectuals knew France as the ''West,'' and when the Westernization reforms were implemented, the reformers took France as an example. The founders of the Republic were Ottoman intellectuals. Naturally, France was the ''level of modern civilization'' for them.

The law on which Turkey based its administrative structure was the product of the first half of the 19th century and translated from the Napoleonic Code. Almost all the legislation aimed at turning Turkey into a Western country is the product of the same era, and France was taken as an example for this. During the early years of the Republic, France maintained this ''exemplary'' situation. Our intellectuals spoke French and knew texts in French. In sum, although France isn''t our soulmate, now it''s excluding and opposing itself to the country which most resembles it in this region.

A similar analysis can be done of Armenians, which caused French politicians to oppose Turkey just for votes. The Ottomans trusted the Armenians the most. The Armenian people established the closest links with Turkish society, and they were familiar with our culture and contributed to our national heritage. Even today the presence of Armenians who live illegally in Turkey shows that Armenians see Turkey differently from their state. France, the country that we resemble the most in the West, doesn''t consider it harmful to pass a meaningless law which drives Turkey into a corner on the international stage with the pressure of Armenia, which is fated to get on well with us in the east. This is the biggest conflict that we''re facing now. Not the Armenians in Armenia, but the Armenians who live in other countries (the diaspora) are looking for revenge, and the number of French politicians determined to pass a law punishing those who deny the so-called Armenian genocide is small. When these two facts come together, difficult circumstances might emerge against Turkey. The question of why it''s happening now in France has only one answer: France had great leaders in the past, but now it lacks a leadership which can take responsibility on critical issues, turn its back on petty interests, and look at problems from the vantage point of history. Can we expect leadership from leaders who don''t realize that this law will do the exact opposite of its stated intention?