On January 23, France’s upper house of parliament, the Senate will place debate of the bill criminalizing Armenian Genocide denial on the agenda, Turkish media report.

“Earlier, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan claimed adoption of the bill as part of Nicolas Sarkozy’s election campaign,” TRTHaber writes.

On December 22, 2011, French National Assembly passed a bill criminalizing public denial of the Armenian Genocide. If passed and signed into law by the Senate, the bill would impose a 45,000 euro fine and a year in prison for anyone in France who denies this crime against humanity committed by the Ottoman Empire.