Thousands of Turks living in Europe rallied in Paris to protest against the bill on Armenian genocide [AFP]
France’s upper house of parliament has approved a bill that will make it illegal to deny that the mass killings of Armenians by Ottoman Turks nearly a century ago amounted to genocide.
The French upper house voted 127-to-86 in support of the bill after debating it into the night on Monday, nearly a month after the French national assembly voted overwhelmingly in favour of the draft law.
The bill was approved by the lower house in December, prompting an angry response from Turkey, which vowed to punish the move with “permanent” sanctions if it is passed into law.
Turkey quickly responded to the vote on Monday.
“The decision made by the Senate is a great injustice and shows total lack of respect for Turkey,” Justice Minister Sadullah Ergin told CNN-Turk television.
The text will now be put to President Nicolas Sarkozy, who will likely approve it before parliament takes a break at the end of February ahead of the presidential election.
Ankara froze political and military ties with France after the lower
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