” “The writer Antonia Arslan, former professor of Italian Literature at Padua University, declares to be "perplexed" about the decision taken by the French National Assembly to prosecute by law those who deny the Armenian genocide. On the other hand, the “long and guilty silence which covered the Armenian genocide, the first one in the twentieth century, was much more serious”, said the scholar with Armenian origins. “In Turkey, talking about this tragedy is still taboo, today". "However, she said to Sir, – a remarkable Armenian minority lives in France (about 500 thousand people; the most numerous one in Europe – editor’s note), where a law prosecuting those who deny the Holocaust already exists. Therefore, I understand that they are trying to include also the Armenian genocide in that law". To start a process of historical revision of the tragedy which hit the Armenian people since 1915, according to Arslan, "it is necessary that Turkey accepts to talk about this dark chapter in its history. The road is long. Today, in the Turkish schools, one cannot talk about Armenians. Lots of Turkish intellectuals, not as famous as the new Nobel Prize for Literature, Orhan Pamuk (indicted in 2005 for a few declarations on the Armenian genocide, – editor’s note), are still under trial". "I think, concluded the writer, author of the book "Skylark Farm", – that the request of Europe (submitted as many as six times) for a sort of acknowledgement of the genocide by Turkey is fair, above all, if this country wishes to become part of the European Union". ” “
