Turkey's top diplomat in Paris returns home after approval of French denial bill

ANKARA (A.A) - Turkey's ambassador in Paris returned to the Turkish capital after he was recalled by the Turkish government in retaliation to the approval of a bill at the parliament that made it a crime to deny Armenian allegations regarding the Ottoman era incidents of 1915. Ambasador Tahsin Burcuoglu arrived in Ankara a day after the lower house of the French parliament adopted the bill that penalizes denying Armenian allegations with a prison term of one year and a fine of 45 thousand euros.  A similar bill in 2006 -- proposed by the Socialist Party back then -- was approved by the lower house of the French assembly but the French senate rejected to debate the bill last May.  The bill had the backing of French President Nicolas Sarkozy who had recently expressed support during a visit to Yerevan last October ahead of the presidential elections next year.       "The important thing is to prevent that the bill comes to the senate floor in the next five to six weeks. Our efforts would aim at achieving that," Burcuoglu said on his arrival.           The bill needs approval of the French senate before winning any binding power and it has come to the senate floor for debate before February 22.