PARIS, Feb. 2 (UPI) -- The bill to criminalize deniers of the 1915 mass killing of Armenians in Turkey faces an appeal by some 130 French parliamentarians, officials say.
The French Senate passed the bill in January, and it was given final parliamentary approval on Jan. 23. It only awaits President Nicolas Sarkozy's signature to become law. The Constitutional Court has one month to decide whether or not the bill is unconstitutional.
Turkey is "greatly encouraged" by the appeal, said Engin Solakoglu, spokesman for the Turkish ambassador to Paris.
"This is the only hope we have to save French-Turkish relations," he told France 24. "Of course having the support of 130 lawmakers, a significant part of the French political class, is a good thing. Overall we are greatly encouraged. But if this bill becomes law, it will be the end of French-Turkish relations."
Jacques Myard, who is a member of the National Assembly for Sarkozy's conservative UMP party, said the appealing lawmakers agree that both the Holocaust and the Armenian killings were genocides.
Myard argued, however, the law was "clearly unconstitutional." Criminalizing deniers was not as important as upholding freedom of speech in line with the French Constitution, he said.
