Birmingham Post, UK
October 13, 2006, Friday
First Edition

Armenia genocide bill approved

French politicians yesterday approved a bill making it a crime to
deny that mass killings of Armenians in Turkey during and after the
First World War amounted to genocide.

Deputies in the National Assembly voted 106-19 for the bill, which
has prompted out-rage in Turkey and

embarrassed the French government.

The bill, which was introduced by the opposition Socialists, must
still be passed by the Senate and be signed by President Jacques
Chirac.

The French bill would recognise the killings of up to 1.5 million
Armenians from 1915 to 1919 as genocide, and those

who contest a genocide would risk up to a year in prison and fines of
up to 45,000 euros (pounds 30,400).

Armenia accuses Turkey of massacring Armenians during the First World
War, when Armenia was under the Ottoman Empire. Turkey says Armenians
were killed in civil unrest.