(Paris) The far-right candidate Éric Zemmour went there in mid-December, that of the traditional right-wing Valérie Pécresse arrived there on Monday. Armenia is asserting itself as a popular destination for French presidential candidates, eager to defend the Christians of the East.
Eric Zemmour had made his first trip abroad, on the theme of “the war of civilization”.
“Martyrdom, in danger”
Armenia, “a martyr land”, is “in danger”, had launched this follower of the theory of the “great replacement” of European populations by immigrants.
Wedged between Turkey in the west and Azerbaijan in the east, two Muslim countries, Armenia was the first Christian state in history (IVe century). This small Christian country waged a short but bloody war in the fall of 2020 against Azerbaijan, which was supported by Turkey. The stake of this conflict was the control of the Azerbaijani region of Nagorno-Karabakh, mainly populated by Armenians. The fighting left 6,500 dead.
PHOTO KAREN MINASYAN, AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE ARCHIVES
The leader of the Reconquest party Éric Zemmour during his visit to the Tsitsernakaberd Armenian genocide memorial in Yerevan, December 12, 2021. He is accompanied by the French politician and writer Philippe de Villiers (left).
Defeat Armenia was forced to sign a ceasefire and cede to Azerbaijan several regions forming a glacis around Nagorno-Karabakh, which had freed itself from Azerbaijani rule after the fall of the USSR. Several incidents have since raised fears of renewed fighting.
Armenia, a former Soviet republic, is “a Christian nation […] in the middle of an Islamic ocean “, had insisted Éric Zemmour, whereas the religious dimension was not central in the recent conflict, Azerbaijan being one of the most secular countries in the world.
Sudden infatuation
Just like the far-right candidate, Valérie Pécresse registers her trip in “support for Eastern Christians just before Christmas”, according to those around him.
Like Mr. Zemmour, who had attended a mass at the monastery of Khor Virap, the first holy place in the country, the candidate of the Republicans party, visited several Christian sites.
First, the memorial to the victims of the Armenian genocide – which left between 600,000 and 1.5 million dead in 1915-1916 under the Ottoman Empire and that Turkey refuses to recognize, unlike some thirty countries, including France. and Canada. She then went to the Holy See of the Armenian Church near Yerevan, the capital, and then to a military cemetery, to meet Armenian Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoian and President Armen Sarkissian.
We must mobilize all of Europe around this conflict, it is not a conflict in the Caucasus, it is a conflict that affects Europe, because when we attack Christians from the East […], we are also attacking the foundations of European civilization.
Candidate Valérie Pécresse, during a press conference.
The sudden enthusiasm for this small Caucasian country seems to be part of an omnipresent theme in the French countryside, particularly on the right: Islam.
Armenia is a destination seen as the watchtower “at the outpost of Christianity”, observes Taline Ter Minassian, a historian specializing in the region.
After Lebanon in the 1980s, then Iraq-Syria, where the Islamic State group increased the atrocities against Christians in 2014-2015, Armenia became a “new stake in a competition to capture the Catholic electorate conservative “, observes in a report the Jean Jaurès Foundation, the French right having an” old tradition of protection of the Christians of the East “.
Socialist candidate’s Esplanade Armenia
On the left, the socialist candidate (and mayor of Paris) Annie Hidalgo does not rule out an Armenian trip. “Everything is possible, but nothing is mentioned in the agenda for the moment,” said a spokesperson.
ANNE HILDAGO’S TWITTER ACCOUNT PHOTO
The mayoress of Paris and socialist candidate for the presidential election Anne Hidalgo during the inauguration of the Esplanade d’Arménie in the 8th arrondissement, on December 10, 2021.
Mid-December, Mme Hidalgo had inaugurated an “Esplanade d’Arménie” in the French capital, recalling “the unwavering attachment of Paris to the Armenian people”, “which defends its right to exist”. The religious question had never been mentioned in his speech.
Depending on the political position, Armenia thus allows different reading grids. “There is an honest approach: it is democracy in the face of dictatorship, it is the defense of human rights”, says Jules Boyadjian, president of the Committee for the defense of the Armenian cause, a French association, which welcomes “the particular history between Armenia and France”.
Some 500,000 people of Armenian origin live in France, according to him, whose votes could also count in an election promising to be close.
“We do not want to lock up the Armenian cause in a conflict of civilizations which simply comes to nourish the patterns of internal politics”, he affirms however.
Ara Toranian, the monthly editor News from Armenia, wants to be less definitive. “We are not in a situation where we can afford to reject those who extend their hand to us,” he sighs. “Armenia can die overnight as it is surrounded by forces which are superior to it.”