Happy New Year from Asterix the Gaul

Since my late father's country Turkey and one of my favorite countries in the world France are in a diplomatic brewhaha, I thought I'd start of the New Year with an entry dedicated to the French comic book heroes Asterix and Obelix here. Conversely, there will be a page dedicated to the Turkish shadow puppet characters Karagoz and Hacivat on our sister blog.

With the popularity of Steven Spielberg's animated film "The Adventures of Tintin," based on the beloved books by Belgian cartoonist Herge is bringing Tintin, who is perhaps still the world's most famous fictitious reporter_ well along with Clark Kent/Superman, to American shores, one can only hope that Asterix, who celebrated his 50th anniversary in 2011, will get his own well-deserved recognition in les etats unis soon.

As for the row between Paris and Ankara, it is perhaps the result of two right-leaning political figures in French Prime Minister Nicolas Sarkozy and Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, both of whom also have strong personalities, making matters even more dire than they may have been otherwise. Turkey faced a similar exchange of heated words with another unyielding right-wing leader in Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu with the Blue Marmara Flotilla Fiasco (as we refer to that incident which alas killed many innocent people) in 2009.

French parliamentarian Valerie Boyes, a political ally of Sarkozy's, has received death threats from Turkish nationalists according to various sources. Boyes was a key proponent of the bill, which has popularity amongst France's 500,000 people of Armenian heritage, including singer/actor Charles Aznavour, 87.

But, many including France's own foreign minister Alain Juppe fear the bill, which would involve a stiff $59,000 fine and one-year jail sentence for any person who does not classify the disputed tragic events between Turks and ethnic Armenians in rural Anatolia, especially in what is now eastern Turkey, in 1915 as a genocide.

Turkey has itself been criticized abroad for laws which do not allow individuals the freedom to classify those events as genocide and many prominent Turkish intellectuals including the controversial Turkish novelist Elif Shafak have faced court hearings as a result.

The Armenian bill was approved by the French Parliament on Dec. 21, and is awaiting Boyer's expected signature. Erdogan, for his part, has called the bill one that is based on 'racism, discrimination and xenophobia.' Erdogan later accused France of genocide in colonial Algeria.

Turkey's ambassador to France, Tahsin Burcuoglu, was also summoned back to Ankara. Turkey has also been angry at Sarkozy for being vocally opposed to Turkey's membership into the European Union though the seismic economic collapse in neighboring Greece, an EU member, has made domestic Turks less inclined to join the EU. The legislation also runs the likely risk of of economic exchanges between Turkey and France; Turkey is France's fifth largest trading partner.

Ironically, the late Turkish Armenian activist Hrant Dink, who was tragically assassinated by a far right Turkish nationalist in Istanbul in 2007, said he was equally opposed to suppression of free speech on both sides of the heated issue whether it be in Turkey or in Europe.

As for Asterix, which I read a child in Turkey, where the character remains very popular, in the late 1970s, he was created by writer Rene Goscinny (1926-1977) who was also responsible for the genesis of the French comic book cowboy Lucky Luke who was drawn by the late Belgian cartoonist Morris. Lucky Luke, who was called Red Kit in Turkey, was also a childhood favorite of mine, and in recent years, Lucky Luke has also been published in the United States.

Asterix was drawn by the illustrator Albert Uderzo, who is still alive at age 84. Asterix has been popular everywhere in the world, even in Canada, except for the United States and Japan. So far, 345 million copies of the 34 Asterix books have been sold worldwide.

The first book in the series was "Asterix the Gaul," published in 1961. Since Asterix was a small figure, a strong-looking sidekick was needed and in came Obelix, the very large, round man who carried a big rock. Asterix is also frequently followed by his pet Dogmatix.

My personal favorite Asterix book is "Asterix at the Banquet" (1965). Other great books in the series include "Asterix and the Big Fight" (1966), "Asterix at the Olympic Games" (1968) and "Asterix and the Laurel Wreath" (1972).

If it seems perhaps slightly inappropriate that I mix Asterix with an ugly matter which has become what I see as a "Rashomon nightmare" (in reference to Akira Kurosawa's film "Rashomon" where Japanese villagers each depict differing accounts of a rape crime), then it should be pointed that in France there has been a beef over the legacy of Asterix as the character has apparently been sold to a large media conglomerate in France.

With that said, Happy New Year to everyone, and thanks to those of you who have looked at this blog from countries as far apart as Slovenia and Indonesia.

SIDEBAR: The answer to our Bonus Road Trip question from last week is C) 12 hours, that is the distance between Clemson, SC, and Miami, Fla. And, the answer to our "Rabbit Ears Quiz" is A) Sept. 25, 1970. The other dates used as choices were when "The Partridge Family" first aired in various European countries, including Germany.