Patrick Devedjian

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Patrick Devedjian (2019)

Patrick Roland Karékin Devedjian (born August 26, 1944 in Fontainebleau , Seine-et-Marne department , † March 29, 2020 in Antony , Hauts-de-Seine department ) was a French Gaullist politician and lawyer . He has been President of the Departmental Council of Hauts-de-Seine since 2007 .

origin

Patrick Devedjian's father, the engineer Roland Devedjian (1901–1974), was born as an Armenian in Sivas , Turkey . Raised in a Francophile family in Constantinople , he fled to France in 1919 - after the Armenian genocide . He invented a pressure cooker and ran a small business in Courbevoie , a western suburb of Paris, until he was expropriated in the early 1960s for the construction of the high-rise La Défense district . Patrick Devedjian's mother Monique Wallois came from northern France; she died in a riding accident when her son was six years old. His paternal grandfather was the Ottoman fisheries officer Karekin Deveciyan .

Career

Devedjian attended an Armenian Catholic Mechitarist boarding school in Sèvres . After graduating from the Lycée Condorcet , he studied law at the University of Panthéon-Assas (Paris II) and political science at the Institut d'études politiques de Paris (Sciences Po). In 1964 he became a member of a right-wing extremist group called Occident , which was led by Pierre Sidos and which also included the later civil ministers Alain Madelin and Gérard Longuet . He justified this membership with the conviction that Algeria should remain French: “As a Christian from the Orient, I had the feeling that Christians were not defending themselves enough against Islam. (…) I didn't want Christianity to capitulate to Islam again. ”According to investigative journalist Frédéric Charpier (author of a book on Occident ), Devedjian saw a fight between Christians and Muslims in the Algerian war , which led him to the genocide of the Ottoman Reiches remembered the Armenians. In addition, he wanted to compensate for his exclusion because of his foreign origins with an emphatically French nationalist demeanor.

In the summer of 1965, Devedjian and Madelin committed several thefts on the Côte d'Azur (including a Simca 1000 and identification papers), used a forged license plate and illegally owned a 6.35 pistol. For this they were both sentenced to one year probation in prison. After an attack on communist students at the University of Rouen in January 1967, Devedjian was convicted, along with twelve other Occident activists (including Madelin and Longuet), of "planned and armed violence" and had to pay a fine of 1,000 francs. His comrades suspected him of betraying the group, tortured him with waterboarding and expelled him from Occident .

Since 1969 Devedjian was married to Sophie Vanbremeersch, daughter of General Claude Vanbremeersch . The couple have four children. In 1970 Devedjian became a lawyer; in the same year he founded the philosophical-political journal Contrepoint . He worked with the liberal thinker Raymond Aron and changed his political attitudes.

In the 1980s, Devedjian represented members of the Asala (Armenian Secret Army for the Liberation of Armenia) several times as a lawyer . He called them resistance fighters and denied that the Asala was a terrorist organization. For example, he defended Mardiros Jankodjian, who had bombed the Turkish consulate general in Geneva in 1981 and shot a Turkish diplomat. In 1982 he represented Monte Melkonian , who was arrested in Paris with a false passport and was suspected of having participated in the occupation of the Turkish embassy in Paris ("Operation Van"). Devedjian managed to have Melkonian deported without being tried. However, Devedjian refused to represent the alleged perpetrators of the attack on Paris-Orly airport on July 15, 1983, which left eight dead and 56 injured. This was a terrorist attack against France and he did not want to defend terrorists.

Patrick Devedjian died unexpectedly in the early morning hours of March 29, 2020 of the consequences of COVID-19 in Antony Hospital , where he had been admitted for observation three days earlier.

Political career

Patrick Devedjian in June 2007

In 1971 he joined the Gaullist party Union des démocrates pour la République (UDR). From 1976 he was a member of the UDR successor party Rassemblement pour la République (RPR) under the leadership of Jacques Chirac . Together with Charles Pasqua he worked out the statutes of the party. In 1978 he was elected to the local council of the Paris suburb of Antony , in 1983 Devedjian succeeded the communist André Aubry as mayor of Antony. He held the office for four consecutive terms until 2002. In 1986 he was also elected to the National Assembly as a member of the Hauts-de-Seine . He was re-elected in 1988, 1993, 1997 and 2002.

At the same time, Devedjian worked as legal advisor to Chirac, who was party chairman, mayor of Paris (1977-95) and prime minister ( 1986-88 ), and won about 20 trials for this. In the election campaign for the 1995 presidential election , however, he supported Édouard Balladur , Chirac's (unsuccessful) party rival. Although the relationship between the two was strained by this, Devedjian was also active as a lawyer after Chirac's election as president and defended him against allegations of corruption.

Since the beginning of Nicolas Sarkozy's political ascent in the 1990s, Devedjian has been regarded as his political companion and loyal follower. In August 1999, Devedjian became RPR party spokesman at the suggestion of Sarkozy. In October 1999 Devedjian applied for the chairmanship of the party, but was defeated in the ballot with 8.9% of the member's vote. In the National Assembly he initiated a law on the official recognition of the Armenian genocide , which was unanimously adopted on January 18, 2001.

In 2002, the RPR became part of the Union pour un mouvement populaire (UMP), to which Devedjian then belonged. From May 2002 to March 2004 he was assistant minister for local freedoms ( ministre délegué aux libertés locales ) and thus subordinate to the then Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy. From 2003 to 2005, Devedjian was also President of the Communauté d'agglomération des Hauts-de-Bièvre . When Nicolas Sarkozy took over the office of Minister of State (and thus Minister of Economy, Finance and Industry), he followed him and became Minister Associate for Industry. He held this office from April 2004 to May 2005, when he was no longer included in the formation of the de Villepin government .

In the 2007 presidential election he supported Nicolas Sarkozy, whom he succeeded as President of the General Council of the Hauts-de-Seine department after his election as President . In September 2007 he became general secretary and thus de facto party chairman of the UMP . However, his relationship with Sarkozy was strained by the fact that he did not accept him in his first cabinet: he had apparently expected to be appointed Minister of Justice ; this post went to Rachida Dati . Also in September 2007, Devedjian was elected chairman of the Établissement public pour l'aménagement de la région de la Défense (EPAD), the public corporation responsible for the development of the high-rise district of La Défense near Paris. He held this position until 2009.

On December 5, 2008, Devedjian was appointed Minister Associate for the Implementation of the Economic Boost Plan ( ministre chargé de la mise en œuvre du plan de relance ) in the Fillon II cabinet . In this post, which was directly subordinate to the Prime Minister, he was responsible for the plan to revive the French economy after the financial crisis . The Ministry was dissolved when the Fillon III cabinet was formed in November 2010. Devedjian then resumed his parliamentary mandate. After further conflicts, including with Sarkozy's son Jean , it came to a falling out with Nicolas Sarkozy around 2012. In the 2012 election , Devedjian was just able to defend his mandate. The election result was overturned in October 2012 by the Conseil constitutionnel (due to a formal error in the nomination of Devedjian's deputy for election - he was not allowed to run because he already held another office). In the by-election in December 2012, which became necessary, Devedjian won the mandate again, this time with a different deputy.

As President of the General Council (since 2015 Départementrat) of Hauts-de-Seine, he was confirmed several times and held the office until his death. His successor in office was provisionally his party friend Georges Siffredi , mayor of Châtenay-Malabry , who had been first deputy president of the departmental council.

An EU membership for Turkey declined from Patrick Devedjian, mainly because the Turkish government the Armenian Genocide denial. He took the view that Turkey must find an honest and correct way of dealing with its own history before joining the European Union.

literature

  • Michaela Wiegel : Armenia's lawyer on the Seine. Chirac's legal advisor Patrick Devedjian. In: Huberta von Voss: Portrait of a Hope - The Armenians . Hans Schiler Verlag, Berlin 2005, pp. 259-263.

Web links

Commons : Patrick Devedjian  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Élise Karlin: Ce que les politiques disent de leur père. In: L'Express , January 14, 2013.
  2. ↑ Une histoire de famille. In: Le Monde , January 6, 2009.
  3. ↑ a b Michaela Wiegel: Armenia's lawyer on the Seine. Chirac's legal advisor Patrick Devedjian. In: Huberta von Voss: Portrait of a Hope - The Armenians . Verlag Hans Schiler, Berlin 2005, pp. 259-263, on p. 259.
  4. ↑ İstanbul'un Balıkları ve Karekin Efendinin Kitabı. In: T24 , February 8, 2012.
  5. ↑ Cengiz Özdemir: İstanbul'un Balıkları ve Karekin Efendinin Kitabı. In: T24 , February 8, 2012.
  6. ↑ Un projet de mémorial du génocide arménien. In: Le Parisien , April 30, 2015.
  7. ↑ Michaela Wiegel : Armenia's lawyer on the Seine. Chirac's legal advisor Patrick Devedjian. In: Huberta von Voss: Portrait of a Hope - The Armenians . Verlag Hans Schiler, Berlin 2005, pp. 259-263, on pp. 259-260.
  8. ↑ Pierre-Yves Lautrou: Un électron libre en son fief. In: L'Express , May 23, 2005.
  9. ↑ Peillon exhume le passé judiciaire de Devedjian. In: Le Figaro , February 26, 2010.
  10. ↑ De l'extrême droite à l'fascisante ultralibéralisme. In: L'Humanité , September 22, 2005.
  11. ↑ Patrick Devedjian , LeFigaro.fr
  12. ↑ Michaela Wiegel: Armenia's lawyer on the Seine. Chirac's legal advisor Patrick Devedjian. In: Huberta von Voss: Portrait of a Hope - The Armenians . Verlag Hans Schiler, Berlin 2005, pp. 259–263, on p. 262.
  13. ↑ a b c Michaela Wiegel: Armenia's lawyer on the Seine. Chirac's legal advisor Patrick Devedjian. In: Huberta von Voss: Portrait of a Hope - The Armenians . Verlag Hans Schiler, Berlin 2005, pp. 259–263, on p. 260.
  14. ↑ Mehmet Perinçek: Asala and “Children of Talat”. In: Turks and Armenians , Marmara University, 2019.
  15. ↑ David Zenian: Patrick Devedjian - From Student Activist to Members of Parliament. In: AGBU Magazine , March 1, 1995.
  16. ↑ Ronald Krams: Patrick Devedjian dies as a result of a coronavirus infection. In: euronews.com . March 29, 2020, accessed March 31, 2020 .
  17. ^ Coronavirus: Patrick Devedjian est mort du virus. In: francetvinfo.fr . March 29, 2020, accessed on March 29, 2020 (French).
  18. ↑ Mort de Patrick Devedjian: le monde politique français sous le choc. In: francebleu.fr . March 29, 2020, accessed on March 29, 2020 (French).
  19. ↑ a b c Le président du conseil départemental - Biographie de Patrick Devedjian. Départemental Hauts-de-Seine, archived from the original on July 10, 2019 ; accessed on March 13, 2020 (French).
  20. ↑ Michaela Wiegel : Armenia's lawyer on the Seine. Chirac's legal advisor Patrick Devedjian. In: Huberta von Voss: Portrait of a Hope - The Armenians . Verlag Hans Schiler, Berlin 2005, pp. 259-263, on pp. 260-261.
  21. ↑ Jochen Hehn: Chirac party is looking for a way out of the crisis. In: Welt , August 4, 1999.
  22. ↑ a b Michaela Wiegel: Armenia's lawyer on the Seine. Chirac's legal advisor Patrick Devedjian. In: Huberta von Voss: Portrait of a Hope - The Armenians . Verlag Hans Schiler, Berlin 2005, pp. 259–263, on p. 261.
  23. ^ The minister from the prefabricated building. In: Süddeutsche Zeitung , May 19, 2010.
  24. ↑ Anne-Sophie Damecour: Après le décès de Patrick Devedjian, Georges Siffredi (LR) assurera l'intérim le temps voulu. In: leparisien.fr . March 29, 2020, accessed on March 31, 2020 (French).
  25. ↑ Michaela Wiegel: Armenia's lawyer on the Seine. Chirac's legal advisor Patrick Devedjian. In: Huberta von Voss: Portrait of a Hope - The Armenians . Verlag Hans Schiler, Berlin 2005, pp. 259-263, on pp. 261-263.
personal data
SURNAME Devedjian, Patrick
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Devedjian, Patrick Roland Karékin (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION French politician, member of the National Assembly
DATE OF BIRTH August 26, 1944
PLACE OF BIRTH Fontainebleau , Seine-et-Marne department
DATE OF DEATH March 29, 2020
Place of death Antony , Hauts-de-Seine department