The quibbles on Assyrian Genocide are ridiculous, MP of the National Assembly of France Valerie Boyer told the French newspaper Le Figaro.

Ms Boyer is famous for her statements in defense of the recognition of the Genocide of Armenians and other Christian nations who lived on the territory of the Ottoman Empire. During the last days her draft bill on the recognition of the Assyrian-Chaldean Genocide went public. Touching upon the criticism on the faultiness of the draft bill and copying it from Wikipedia, Ms Boyer said that such an argument was ridiculous. 

“In 2012, the same people protested against my draft bill on the criminalization of genocides, including the Armenian Genocide,” she said.

“Assyrian Genocide is difficult to address because of the scarcity of documents witnessing about it.  The most complete source that I could find was the article in Wikipedia, which helped me a lot. I can’t understand what is the problem here, especially considering the fact that the text has been assessed by a number of specialists,” Boyer added.  

To the question why the Genocide in the Ottoman Empire is first and foremost associated with the Armenians, Boyer said that the communities of the Armenian survivors of Genocide were better organized in contrast to those of other nations, and that Armenians are able to struggle for the remembrance of the Genocide victims.

“Unfortunately this wasn’t the case with Assyrian-Chaldeans, that’s why we need a law which would recognize their torturous death and punish for the denial of that crime. The memory of this nation is undergoing a new Genocide grounded on the unacceptable denial policy of modern Turkey, which is built on the policy of exterminations,” Boyer said. 

Responding to the question whether the events in Syria and Iraq are not a repetition of Genocide, Boyer said that there, as in 1915, the victims are Christians, the executioners being Muslims. The oddest thing is that we see the denial of Genocide in our home country. It’s very troubling that such a high-level institution as the Autonomous Operator of Parisian Transports refuses to post an announcement concerning the help to the Christians in the East under pretence of its pro-secular operation.

“Recognition of genocides and their criminalization is a matter of political will. In April 2012 Mr Hollande promised to criminalize the denial of the Armenia Genocide. Whether he’ll keep his promise or not is up to him,” Boyer said.