French senate set to discuss Armenian bill on Monday

PARIS (A.A) - January 22, 2012 - Upper house of the French parliament is set to discuss on Monday a bill that makes it a crime to deny Armenian allegations on the Ottoman era incidents of 1915. The bill penalizes denial of the Armenian allegations on the Ottoman era incidents of 1915 with a prison term of one year and a fine of 45 thousand euros. And it is set to come to the Senate floor on Monday but French senate members could vote to uphold an earlier parliamentary committee decision and drop the bill off the agenda without even debating it. On Saturday nearly 40 thousand Turks living in France and other European countries gathered in Paris to shun the bill. A similar bill -- proposed by the Socialist Party -- was approved in 2006 by the lower house but the Senate rejected to debate the bill last May when it upheld the committee's decision back then.