HistoryofTruth.com - Armenian Allegations

The lighting of Paris’ Eiffel Tower with the colors of the Turkish flag, red and white, to celebrate the Season of Turkey in France, a nine-month festival promoting Turkish culture in France, including more than 400 activities in more than 70 cities around France, has been protested by both a French far-right party and a French Armenian diaspora organization.

From Oct. 6 to 11, the Eiffel Tower will be lit up at night with red and white bulbs as a gesture celebrating Turkish President Abdullah G“l’s visit to France on Oct. 7. Led by Jean-Marie Le Pen, the far-right National Front party protested the illumination of the Eiffel Tower in a statement and called on party members to protest in a rally scheduled for Thursday, the Anatolia news agency reported. Le Pen is a firm opponent of Turkey’s European Union membership bid, and his party’s statement insisted that Ankara not be allowed to join the 27-nation bloc.

Separately, the Coordination Council of Armenian Organizations in France (CCAF), a leading French Armenian group, called on French Armenians to gather in front of the Eiffel Tower on Oct. 7 for a protest. The CCAF expressed its disappointment that when the Year of Armenia in France took place in 2007, the flag of Armenia was not honored in such a way.

“The illumination of the Eiffel Tower with the colors of the Turkish flag is tantamount to encouraging nationalism. Turkey killed off Armenians to sustain this flag and continues to oppress Greeks, Kurds and other minorities. This is the flag of a country currently occupying the territory of a European Union member, Cyprus,” the CCAF statement, released on Monday, read, according to the Cihan news agency.

The CCAF statement said they were not against Turkish people, nor were they anti-Islamists, but that they worried of the danger posed by the exaltation of nationalism and fanaticism and its effect on peace among people. “The CCAF denounces the illumination of the Eiffel Tower as this constitutes an offense to the victims of Turkish nationalism,” the CCAF statement read.

Paris’ symbolic Eiffel Tower is one of the most-visited tourist attractions in the world with its 6 million annual visitors. Roughly 15,000 to 20,000 tourists visit the tower each day. It is estimated that 240 million people have visited the Eiffel Tower since its opening in 1889.

As part of the activities organized for the Season of Turkey in France, the Eiffel Tower, usually lit with white lights, will be decorated with red and white lights. Although it was previously announced that the light display would last for three weeks, the period of illumination was reduced to five days reportedly due to problems with the company that set up the lights.