Members of Armenian associations based in France held a demonstration in front of the French Senate building on Saturday, asking for the approval of a bill that makes the denial of the Armenian genocide a crime.
The French National Assembly, the lower house of the French Parliament, adopted a bill in October 2006 that made it a crime to deny that Ottoman Turks committed genocide against Armenians living in Anatolia during World War I, despite Ankara's protests and a warning that this would "poison" the deeply rooted relations between the two countries. The genocide bill has been waiting to be debated by the Senate, the upper house of the French Parliament. Representatives of Armenian associations have suggested that the bill should be brought onto the agenda of the Senate.
Last week, a report drawn up by a committee of academics concluded that the French legislative mechanism should not make decisions concerning historical issues and also the content of history textbooks.
The bill seeks up to three years in jail for those who dispute claims that Armenians were subject to genocide during World War I. It has angered Turkey, which categorically refutes genocide charges and says the killings came when Armenians revolted against the Ottoman Empire in collaboration with an invading Russian army.
The report said if the parliament needed to make decisions particularly on historical issues, then these decisions should only be binding for the parliament itself, and not the state in general.
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