Turkey has threatened retaliatory measures against France following a French senate vote approving a bill that would outlaw denial that the mass killings of Armenians in 1915 constituted genocide.
Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said the bill was a result of “racist and discriminatory” attitude toward Turkey.
He warned that Turkey will slap new, unspecified sanctions against France if the bill is signed into a law.
“For us it is null and void,” Erdogan said. “We still have not lost our hope that it can be corrected.”
In a written statement following Monday’s vote, Turkey’s foreign ministry said: ”We strongly condemn this decision which is… an example of irresponsibility.”
“Politicising the understanding of justice and history through other people’s past and damaging freedom of expression in a tactless manner are first and foremost a loss for France.”
Sadullah Ergin, Turkey’s justice minister, said the bill, approved by 127 votes to 86 in the French upper house, was “a great injustice” that showed “a total lack of respect” for Turkey.
France’s national assembly, the lower house of parliament, voted overwhelmingly in favour of the bill last month, prompting Ankara to freeze political and military ties with Paris, nominally its NATO ally.
The text will now be put to French President Nicolas Sarkozy, who is expected
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