Islam Times - French Constitutional Council rejects Armenian genocide bill

Islam Times - The Constitutional Council of France has rejected a bill which aims to set a punishment for the denial of an Armenian genocide carried out by the Ottoman Empire in World War I.

This is while the controversial bill was approved by the French Senate last month.

The bill has received harsh criticism from Turkey who says the bill is disrespectfull to all Turks.

Ankara has also threatened broader diplomatic and trade sanctions against Paris as a result of the law.

Meanwhile, French President Nicolas Sarkozy says he will redraft the bill if it is rejected by France's top judicial body.

Sarkozy, whose right-wing UMP party introduced the bill, is accused of using the bill to win the support of France's estimated 500,000 ethnic Armenians in the French presidential election, which will be held in April.

Armenia claims that up to 1.5 million Armenians were killed in an act of genocide carried out by the forces of the Ottoman Empire in 1915 and 1916.

Ankara rejects the use of the word “genocide” and instead says that only 500,000 Armenians died and they were casualties of World War I.

Paris formally recognized the killings of Armenians as genocide in 2001, but had imposed no penalty for anyone denying that genocide had occurred.