Turkey-France group restarts work after bill

The Turkey-France Inter-parliamentary Friendship Group has restarted its work after it was suspended following a highly publicized French bill penalizing the denial of what French officials call an Armenian genocide. Justice and Development Party (AKP) Sanliurfa Deputy Mehmet Kasim Gulpinar was re-elected the co-chairman of the friendship group. The group had been suspended on Dec. 22, 2011 following the acceptance of a French bill penalizing the denial of Armenian allegations of Ottoman-era incidents in 1915 with a prison term, a decision that was later rejected by the constitutional court.