In a historic move, the French Senate has passed a bill making it illegal to deny that the deaths of hundreds of thousands of Armenians in 1915 Turkey was genocide, the AP reports.Turkey, which sees the allegations of genocide as a threat to its national honor, threatened to impose more, “permanent” sanctions on France and suspended military, economic and political ties and briefly recalled its ambassador last month.
According to Armenian historians, up to 1.5 million Armenians were killed by the Ottoman Turks during World War I, and their assets appropriated by Kemal Ataturk to establish the Turkish republic in 1923. Turkey claims only about 500,000 Armenians were killed in the context of the world war and an invasion by Russia
The next step for the bill is for Prime Minister Nicolas Sarkozy to ratify it before parliament is suspended in February.
Loading ...
No comments yet.