Thousands gather in Paris to protest French bill on Ottoman era incidents of 1915

PARIS (A.A) - Thousands of people gathered on Saturday in the French capital to protest a bill that makes it a crime in France to deny Armenian allegations regarding the Ottoman era incidents of 1915. Despite rain and cold weather some 35 thousand Turks living in France and other countries in Europe shunned the bill that penalizes denial of the Armenian allegations with a prison term of one year and a fine of 45 thousand euros.  The bill is set to come to the Senate floor this coming Monday but French Senate members could vote to uphold a parliamentary committee decision and drop the bill off the agenda without even debating it. The protestors carried Turkish, Algerian, Azeri and French flags and urged senators to act against the legislation. "I have been living in France for fifty years and I haven't seen so many Turks got together. Turks in Europe for the first time had the chance to raise a strong voice against an injustice done to them," Demir Onger, head of a Paris-based Turkish culture association said. 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.