Earlier on Monday, the French Senate voted 127 to 86 in favor of the draft law after hours of debate, making it illegal to deny as "genocide" the killing of Armenians by Ottoman Turks in 1915. The bill had been passed by the French National Assembly, the lower house of the parliament, on Dec. 22.
Turkey and Armenia have been bogged down in a dispute over the World War I-era deaths of Armenians under the Ottoman rule. Armenia says the deaths occurred in a "genocide," while Turkey denies the charge and insists that the Armenians were victims of widespread chaos and governmental breakdown as the Ottoman Empire collapsed before modern Turkey was created.
Turkey rejects the term "genocide" for mass killings of Armenians in the World War I era, arguing the issue should be left to historians. Ankara has proposed to establish a joint commission by Turkish, Armenian and other international historians to discuss incidents in 1915, but Armenia has not responded positively to the offer.
(C003)
Editor: Ella Syafputri
Copyright © ANTARA 2012
