Turkey retaliates over French 'genocide' bill

[ via BBC News Europe ] 22 Dec

The Turkish prime minister has announced measures against France after MPs passed a bill criminalising denial of the 1915-16 Armenian "genocide".

Turkey - France relations gone sore over French Genocide Bill

Ankara is recalling its ambassador and freezing political visits as well as joint military projects, including exercises, Recep Tayyip Erdogan said.

The bill was passed by the French National Assembly on Thursday and is due to go before the Senate next year. French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe has publicly opposed it.

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France votes on punishment in new genocide law

[ via CBS News ] 22 Dec

Lawmakers vote on Thursday on a measure that would make it a crime in France to deny that a mass killings of Armenians in 1915 amounted to a genocide, a measure that could put France on a collision course with Turkey, a strategic ally and trading partner which says the conflict nearly 100 years ago should be left to historians.

France formally recognized the killings as genocide in 2001, but provided no penalty for anyone denying that. The bill sets a punishment of up to one year in prison and a fine of euro45,000 ($59,000) for those who deny or "outrageously minimize" the killings by Ottoman Turks, putting such action on a par with denial of the Holocaust.

Read more at CBS News

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