The passage of the bill is unlikely to affect development of Armenia-Turkey ties due to their currently being at a standstill -

ARF Dashnaktsutyun Hay Dat and Political Affairs Office Director believes there’s a real chance for the French President Nicolas Sarkozy to sign the bill penalizing the Armenian Genocide denial. Kiro Manoyan told about this during Jan. 24 interview with the journalists. 

According to him, the adoption of the bill is a victory gained by both Armenia, France and reasonable people in Turkey itself.

Kiro Manoyan underscored the importance of adopting a similar bill beyond Turkey’s borders, which may bring about a chain reaction in the future.

“The passage of the bill is unlikely to affect development of Armenia-Turkey ties due to their currently being at a standstill,” Mr. Manoyan said.

“Yesterday’s decision was a great political success. France did not allow Turkey to pressure it by means of threats.
Reasonable people in Turkey are already saying that bills like this are necessary for Turks to know their own history better,” Manoyan said.

He hopes the other EU member-states will follow France’s example. He is confident that France adopted the bill not only in its own interests.

“The forthcoming elections and the [Armenian] community had their role in the bill being adopted quickly. However, it would be wrong to explain the speedy enactment of the bill by these factors alone. According to a statement made at the French Senate yesterday, the law on the Armenian Genocide was not perfect, and the bill completed it,” Manoyan said.

The adoption of the bill will have only temporary impact on French-Turkish relations.

“There will be a cooling of relations during the next few weeks. But Turkey is unable to do too much. Economic threats were not so serious to force France to step back in this matter of principle,” Manoyan said. Adopting the bill was not only a political move," he added. 

On January 23, the French Senate passed the bill criminalizing the Armenian Genocide denial with 127 votes 'for', 86 'against'.

On December 22, 2011, the bill was adopted by the French National Assembly. Passed by the Senate, the bill will 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.