STUDENTS HAIL FRENCH BILL ON TURK GENOCIDE DENIAL

Windsor Star (Ontario)
October 14, 2006 Saturday
Final Edition

YEREVAN, Armenia – About 1,000 students rallied in the Armenian capital
Friday to thank France for backing a bill that would make it a crime
to deny that Turks committed genocide against the Armenians in the
early 20th century.

"Thank You, France!" and "Hail French Justice!" read two of the
placards held up by the students from a nationalist youth group,
who waved flags of Armenia and France as they marched through central
Yerevan.

The French parliament on Thursday approved on first reading a bill
that would make it a crime to deny that the 1915-17 massacres of
Armenians by the Ottoman Turks constituted genocide.

Turkey slammed the vote, saying France had dealt "a heavy blow"
to longstanding bilateral relations.