French Senate sets debate on genocide denial bill for January 23

Paris (dpa) - The French Senate on Tuesday confirmed that the chamber would on January 23 debate a bill making it a crime to deny that Armenians suffered genocide at Turkish hands during World War I.

The lower house of parliament, the National Assembly, already adopted the bill on December 22. The Senate must also pass the text in order for it to become law.

The bill, which was proposed by a member of President Nicolas Sarkozy‘s party, proposes that people who deny genocides recognized by France face a one-year jail term and a fine of up to 45,000 euros (58,000 dollars).

That includes people who deny that the mass killings of Armenians by Ottoman Turks during World War I was genocide.

More than 15 countries have recognized the slaughter of up to 1.5 million Armenians during the break-up of the Ottoman Empire as genocide.

Turkey admits that hundreds of thousands of Armenians died, but denies there was a systematic policy to eliminate them.

Ankara reacted angrily to the adoption of the bill by the assembly in December, recalling its ambassador and suspending all contact with France.

The ambassador returned to France at the weekend, in order to lobby against the bill being passed by the Senate. dpa cfb ncs Author: Clare Byrne