Genocide fury

The Turkish government announced on Thursday it would retaliate after France's National Assembly voted to make it a crime to deny that Ottoman Turks committed genocide against Armenians.

"We don't have genocide in our history," Erdogan told reporters in Ankara. "We will tell [the world] about the French atrocities that have been forgotten."

"We will gradually take more steps according to how France acts on the bill."

Despite warnings of sanctions from Ankara, lawmakers in the French lower house voted for a draft law that bans denial that the killings, which took place between 1915 and 1917, were genocide.

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayip Erdogan said that Turkey would withdraw its ambassador from Paris and announced a number of other measures. He said French military planes would not be able to fly over the country and French naval ships would not be able to dock at Turkish ports.

He also said that a joint economic cooperation meeting scheduled for January would not be taking place.

Among the other possible sanctions would be a ban on French firms bidding for Turkish public works contracts.

As the vote was taking place, French Turks demonstrated in Paris,　claiming that the bill - now set to be discussed in the French upper house - would be an attack on their freedom of expression.

Praise from Armenia

Meanwhile, Armenia thanked the French assembly for the decision, claiming that Paris had "once again proved its commitment to universal human values."

In March, 2010, a US Congress panel recognized the events as genocide, sparking fury from Turkey.

Armenia says that massacres and deportations, which took place as the Ottoman Empire fell apart, left more than 1.5 million of its people dead. Turkey claims the number was between 250,000 to 500,000 and describes the bloodshed as "civil strife" rather than genocide.

Author: Richard Connor (AP, AFP, dpa)
Editor: Michael Lawton