Turkey strongly condemnes and threatens France with retaliation, after French Senate approved the bill making it a crime denying mass killings of Armenians by Ottoman Turks was genocide.

Ankara / NationalTurk – Relations between France and Turkey, the two NATO allies are at a low and Ankara’s ambassador in Paris states he’s ready to return to Turkey, after France shamelessly uses poor Armenian conscience as a cat’s paw for the upcoming France elections.

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has accused French President Nicolas Sarkozy, who is seeking re-election later this year, of using the law to pander to France’s estimated 400,000 voters of Armenian origin.

France genocide attrocity : Politics have won over law

France Senate’s upper house approved a bill late on Monday evening, criminalizing the denial of Armenians by Ottoman Turks during World War I was genocide. The approval of the Genocide bill will be finalized as a law after French President Sarkozyan signs it.

The dire event is condemned by Turkey whereas it found praise in Armenia. Armenian people who live in Armenia are not represented by themselves. The lobbyist Armenian diaspora all over the world decides for them.

The French Senate passed the bill – which allows for a potential one-year prison sentence and a fine of up to 45,000 euros ($57,000) for those who deny that genocide occurred in 1915 – by a vote of 127 to 86. Of the 217 members of the senate 213 used legit votes. 107 was the number required for the passing of the law. The Armenian genocide bill, passed last month by France’s lower house, the National Assembly, must now be signed by French President Nicolas Sarkozyan before it can become law, which contradicts with the 34th ammendment of French constitution. The 34th bylaw of French Constitution is about freedom of speech and expression.

Sarkozy’s Foreign Minister Alain Juppe has admitted the bill is “untimely.” while even French Senate’s committee chairman, Jean-Pierre Sueur, criticized the bill as unconstitutional, saying that it could be rejected by France’s constitutional court. Sueur said it specifically runs counter to constitutional provisions guaranteeing freedom of speech and academic research. He shoved his protests by asking the French MP’s supporting the genocide bill ” Who do you serve?”, hinting at the tastleless motives behind the attempt to alter history for political gains.

Armenia hailed the French Senate vote as a day “written in gold,” while Turkey lamented “a black day in France’s history.”

‘Permanent’ consequences in France Turkey Relations after Armenian Genocide Bill

France’s NATO ally Turkey, however, has threatened to raise the level of severe diplomatic fallouts if the genocide bill is rubber-stamped by Sarkozyan to be finalized as law before French parliament takes a break at the end of February ahead of the presidential election. Ankara has already temporarily suspended relations with Paris as Ankara government has frozen political and military ties with Paris. French President Sarkozyan whose party French UMP (the mainstream right-wing party in France) supported the bill, needs to sign it into law, but that is largely considered a formality.

French genocide bill puts Nazis and Turks at same level

The bill will mean that France will officially recognize two genocides – that of the Jews at the hands of the Nazis during the Second World War and the killings in eastern Turkey between 1915 and 1917.

Turkey : Reactions to France Armenian Genocide Law Approval

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.

In a written statement following Monday’s vote, Turkey’s foreign ministry declared: “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, added 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.

“Turkey will never accept such a law, and now everybody will pay a price, including Turkey, France, and the Armenian communities,” he warned.

“You can expect diplomatic relations will be at the level of charge d’affaires, not ambassador anymore.” “Turkey is committed to taking all necessary measures against this unjust disposition, which reduces basic human rights to nothing,” Turkey’s Foreign Ministry announced in a statement.

The Turkish embassy in Paris said France was “in the process of losing a strategic partner.” “If the law is adopted by the government, the consequences will be permanent,” an Turkish embassy spokesman stated.

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