Turkish demonstrators outside the French consulate in Istanbul protesting on October 8 against the French 'Armenian genocide' bill (epa)
October 15, 2006 -- Turkey's semi-official Anatolia news agency today quotes Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan as saying that French President Jacques Chirac has expressed his regret to him about a French bill that insists the World War I massacres of Armenians were genocide.
The bill, passed on October 12, makes it a crime to deny that the 1915-17 massacres of Armenians by Ottoman Turks constituted genocide.
The bill still has to undergo a vote in the Senate and a second assembly reading before being passed into law.
(AFP)
RFE/RL Caucasus Report
RFE/RL Caucasus Report
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