French Senate passes resolution recognizing Assyrian genocide

Yasmeen Altaji | Feb. 8, 2023

France’s Senate on Wednesday voted to pass a resolution recognizing the “Assyro-Chaldean Genocide” of 1915. 

The resolution passed with 302 votes in favor and two in opposition during Wednesday’s legislative session, according to Senate reports. Senators Valérie Boyer and Bruno Retailleau of The Republicans, a liberal-conservative party established in 2015, sponsored the resolution.

Retailleau said in a tweet: “We carry the voice of…a people, but we also draw the lessons of history, for our future to all.”

The legislation calls for official recognition of “the mass extermination, deportation and removal of the cultural heritage of more than 250,000 Assyrian-Chaldeans by the Ottoman authorities.” It also calls for “public condemnation” of the genocide and designation of April 24 as a day of joint commemoration of the Armenian Genocide and the Assyrian Genocide.

According to a statement from Boyer’s office, the passage of the resolution marks the first time that the “question of the Assyrian-Chaldean genocide is subject to public examination, followed by a vote”.

“We are talking as much about history as [we are] current events,” the statement said, citing Turkish President Erdogan’s referral to Assyrians and Armenians as “remains of the sword.”

The Senate is the upper house of the French Parliament, with the lower house being the National Assembly. In 2021, French National Assembly member François Pupponi presented legislation recognizing the events as genocide.

Members of the Assyrian, Armenian and Greek communities regard targeted persecution by Ottoman forces in 1915 as genocide. Present-day Turkey has routinely denied that the events of 1915 constituted genocide.