About 68 senators in the 348-member Senate are attending the critical session.
The deputy speaker of the Senate Charles Guene , in a speech he delivered before the start of the session , said the Senate would not like to be a tool about this historical matter being politicized and added that however forgetting the crimes of war is also a crime.
Guene said further that the Senate wanted to avoid all kinds of information pollution and stressed that every one had the freedom to reject or support it.
Patrick Ollier who went to the rostrum after Guene in his capacity as the Minister for relations with the parliament said the bill put forward was in harmony with French and EU laws.
The Head of the Laws Commission and rapporteur Jean-Pierre Sueur said the bill should be rejected as it is against the Constitution of France. Sueur who said he spoke on behalf of no political tendency except for his identity as a jurist recalled the rejection last year of a similar bill by the Laws Commission and the Senate.
He also said that a survey report penned in 2008 said parliaments were not entitled to write history anew, stressing that parliaments could not serve as a court.
The head of the Laws Commission Sueur said that French historians were awaiting with concern the developments regarding the bill, and called for the formation of commission of historians within UNESCO.
The senators opposed to the bill have earlier been called upon not to attend the session.
The official website of the French Senate draws attention with this particular expression to the effect that " the voting will be held despite Turkey’s threats."
French citizens of Turkish origin and Turkish citizens alike are outside of the Senate waiting for the result of the session .
At another point close to the front door of the Senate, Armenians are also staging a rally.