Writethru: French parliament passes bill on Armenian genocide

The French lower house of parliament on Thursday adopted a bill that would make it a crime to deny that the World War I massacre of Armenians by Ottoman Turks was genocide.

According to the legislation that was carried by 106 votes to 19, anyone denying the genocide would be sentenced to one year in prison and ordered to pay a 45,000-euro (56,570 U.S. dollars) fine.

To become law, the bill still needs the approval of both the upper house Senate and the French president.

But Turkey has warned that the bill would damage ties between the two countries, and threatened economic revenge against France if the bill become law.

"If this draft law is approved, Turkey will lose nothing but France will ... lose Turkey," Turkish Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul said in televised comments late on Wednesday.

Ankara denied it was to blame for the genocide of around 1.5 million Armenians during the disintegration of the Ottoman Empire in World War I, arguing that it was part of general fighting in which both sides suffered.

Although the French government considered that it was up to historians not parliament to judge the past, the ruling Union for a Popular Movement (UMP) gave its lawmakers a free hand in the vote, which ensured the passing of the bill.

Later in the day, the European Commission criticized the bill, saying it could harm reconciliation efforts.

Source: Xinhua