Turkish-French relations have been put under the microscope and subjected to the hostile gaze of the press. There have been calls for consumer boycotts, and bans on the teaching of French. Istanbul taxi drivers have even announced that they will refuse to take French passengers. The latter can console themselves with the thought that in gridlocked Istanbul it is often quicker to walk.
Turkey is right to feel aggrieved by a fundamentally misconceived piece of legislation.
We should bear this in mind when seeking the answers to key questions raised by this episode. We must first look at the present context of these claims. The Armenian genocide claims are the work of radical nationalists among the Armenian diaspora and the leadership in Armenia and Nagorno Karabagh. They are the most vocal of Armenian groups, and have thus tended to overshadow more pragmatic and less narrow-minded political forces in the country. It is very hard to see how this aggressively pursued agenda benefits the average citizen of poverty-stricken Armenia.