Since when European values have boiled down to a single issue of sexual minority rights?

Since when European values have boiled down to a single issue of sexual minority rights? Millions of Parisians marching in support of the traditional family are apparently outside the European values system. Nonsense, isn’t it? Because they are posterity to Montesquieu and Voltaire, to Camus and Sartre, and the list will go on for several pages. Because European values are a product of at least three millennia of civilisation, from Aristotle and Plato to Narekatsi and Gosh to Renaissance and Reformation, to Bentham and Mill, to Hegel and Rousseau, to Cobden and Adam Smith, to Mazzini and Dunant, to Dostoyevsky and Bulgakov, to industrial revolution, free trade, national liberation and civil liberties. Because Europe has known colonialism and war, discrimination and genocide, and because it has risen from the ashes of shame to the common values of democracy, human rights and fundamental freedoms.This is exactly what we claim fit for our society and for our children. This is exactly the foundation we see fit for our sustainable social and economicdevelopment. These are not some abstract values imposed by outsiders. As a matter of fact, these are our values, enshrined in our Constitution, which also happen to be common European values.

On the more specific issue of sexual minorities, we have every reason to object to the rights claims of sexual minorities, especially when they challenge the integrity of the social fabric with the family as a consensual union of a man and a woman, at the centre of it, or when they collide with the rights of the child. However, whether we like it or not, sexual minorities are amongst us, they live in the same society, they are part of it. When our objections enter the domain of abuse, discrimination and ultimately persecution, we inadvertently differ little from any oppressor. To discriminate on one ground is a licence to discriminate on any ground, whether national, religious, ethnic or other. Then you know where the society takes itself. History has given ample examples. How many people have been burnt to ashes because they were different in colour, belief, language, ethnic origin or political views? Europe, and us in particular, have seen enough of it in the past to understand that there is no such thing as selective discrimination.If a society accepts discrimination on one ground, it is ready to discriminate on any other. A democratic society respects fundamental freedoms, including freedom to personal life. To stay away from other peoples’ bedrooms is not just a matter of a right to privacy, but also basic civility.Equally, parading sexuality is an ugly invitation to one’s bedroom privacy. Bottom line is that it is our basic common European value not to discriminate. In the streets of Paris I would march on the side of those in support of traditional family, but would strongly object to the presence of hate induced discriminators amongst my ranks. It is a complex issue, indeed. Trivialisation of public debate about values and sexual minorities undermines the seriousness of both issues and challenges the strength and maturity of a society.

Zohrab Mnatsakanian is the Armenian Deputy Foreign Minister.

These views are his own.