PARIS (AP) — A bill making it a crime to deny the 1915 killings of Armenians was a genocide has passed both houses of France’s parliament.
The Senate’s vote Monday came despite Turkey’s threats to impose new sanctions on France. It already suspended military, economic and political ties when the lower house of French parliament passed the bill last month.
The measure now needs to be signed by President Nicolas Sarkozy, whose party proposed it, to become a law.
While most historians contend that the 1915 killings of Armenians as the Ottoman Empire broke up was the 20th century’s first genocide, Turkey vigorously denies that.
