BEIRUT: Lebanese Forces MP Shant Janjanian, a Lebanese-Armenian, delivered a thank-you letter to French envoy to Lebanon Denis Pietton Thursday for France’s support of a bill banning the denial of the Armenian genocide.

The French Senate approved a law last month to punish anyone with jail time who denies that the 1915 massacre of Armenians by Ottoman Turk Forces amounted to genocide.

A left-wing group of senators said last week they had gathered 76 signatures from senators opposed to the law, more than the minimum 60 required to ask the council to examine the law's constitutionality.

The council is obliged to deliver its judgment within a month, but this can be reduced to eight days if the government deems the matter urgent.

There are around 200,000 Lebanese of Armenian origin represented by five ministers in the Lebanese Cabinet.

France recognizes the killings, which Armenians say up to 1.5 million of their forebears were killed in 1915 and 1916 by the Ottoman Empire, which broke up after the end of World War I.

If introduced, the new law would punish anyone who denies this with up to a year in jail and a fine of 45,000 euros ($57,000).

Turkey disputes the figure, arguing that 500,000 people died and that their deaths were not the result of genocide.