YEREVAN - On November 9, Armenia welcomed the decision by the French Senate to recognize as "genocide" the massacres of an estimated 1.5 million Armenians in the Ottoman Empire 85 years ago.

The Senate earlier in the day voted overwhelmingly in favor of a bill declaring that "France publicly recognizes the Armenian Genocide of 1915."

The lower house of the French parliament passed a virtually identical bill more than a year ago despite vigorous protests from Turkey. Ankara put strong pressure on the French government this time as well, again warning of a major deterioration in bilateral relations.

A spokesman for the Armenian foreign ministry, Ara Papian, said in a statement that the vote "reaffirms the historical truth" and enables Armenia and Turkey to "overcome difficult issues inherited from the past."

Later, Foreign Minister Vartan Oskanian urged the Armenian parliament to officially express its gratitude to the French lawmakers.

The French bill will be legally binding if it is again approved by the lower house. Its passage came two weeks after a non-binding resolution recognizing the Armenian genocide was withdrawn from the US House of Representatives at the urging of President Bill Clinton.

Turkey, which insists that the killings were not the result of a premeditated genocidal policy by the Ottoman authorities, has said it will not normalize relations with neighboring Armenia unless the authorities in Yerevan stop raising the issue internationally and encouraging similar efforts by Diasporan lobbying groups.

The vote in the French upper house was cheered by a crowd of Armenians who had gathered outside the Senate building in Paris. France's Armenian community has lobbied hard for the passage of the genocide bill.