French Senate rejects denial Armenian genocide claims to be a crime

The French Senate has effectively rejected a bill that would make it a crime to publicly say the World War I-era mass killings of Armenians in Ottoman Turkey did not constitute genocide, RFE/RL's Armenian Service reports.

The bill -- which was drafted by lawmakers from the opposition Socialist Party -- was adopted by the French lower house, the National Assembly, in 2006 amid vehement protests from the Turkish government.

But it also needed to be passed by the Senate, parliament's upper house, in order to become law.

The influential French-Armenian community has for years been trying to push the bill through the Senate, which is dominated by supporters of President Nicolas Sarkozy (see picture insert). The effort has faced tacit resistance from the government.

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