PARIS (AP) — Thousands of Turks have marched through Paris denouncing a bill that would make it a crime to deny that the killing of Armenians by Ottoman Turks nearly a century ago was genocide.
Turks waving their country's red flag marched on Saturday to the Senate, where the bill will be debated on Monday after passage in December in the lower house.
They carried banners reading "No to Sarkozy Shame Law" and "History for Historians."
The measure would make it a crime to deny that mass killings of Armenians in 1915 by Ottoman Turks constitute genocide.
Critics claim its real aim is ensuring votes for President Nicolas Sarkozy from French Armenians in the two-round presidential elections in April and May.
Ankara, irate over the bill, has suspended military and economic cooperation with Paris.
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