Azerbaijan, Baku, Dec. 22 / Trend A. Tagiyeva /
About 90 percent of the French Parliament members do not participate in the voting on the bill about the punishment for the denial of the so-called "Armenian genocide", CNN Turk TV channel said today.
Turkey hopes that France will not sacrifice long-term friendship between Ankara and Paris for the sake of petty political settlements.
Earlier, the Prime Minister of Turkey Recep Tayyip Erdogan said that Turkish-French relations should not depend on third party's demands, and if the French Senate approves the bill Turkey will respond with all diplomatic means.
MPs from the French President's "Union for Popular Movement" (UMP) party which has the parliamentary majority, proposed a bill which aims at criminalizing denial of the so-called "Armenian genocide" to the legislative committee of the National Assembly in early December.
The bill which was signed by 40 members of the UMP party and the New Centre party, provides up to one year's imprisonment and a fine of 45,000 euros for those who deny the so-called 'Armenian genocide'.
Armenia and the Armenian lobby claim that the predecessor of Turkey - Ottoman Empire had committed the 1915 genocide against the Armenians living in Anadolu, and achieved recognition of the "Armenian Genocide" by the parliaments of some countries.