Turkey sanctions France over genocide bill
Turkey has reacted with fury to a vote by French lawmakers to outlaw denial of the 1915 Armenian genocide, immediately cutting military ties and warning of "irreparable damage" to relations.
"This is politics based on racism, discrimination and xenophobia," thundered Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Thursday, ordering home Ankara's ambassador to Paris and banning political visits between the two NATO allies.
"From now on we are revising our relations with France," he added. "There was no genocide committed in our history. We do not accept this."
The French National Assembly had voted to approve a first reading of a law that would ban anyone from denying that the killings of hundreds of thousands of Armenians by Ottoman Turk forces during World War I amount to genocide.
"This is politics based on racism, discrimination and xenophobia," thundered Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Thursday, ordering home Ankara's ambassador to Paris and banning political visits between the two NATO allies.
"From now on we are revising our relations with France," he added. "There was no genocide committed in our history. We do not accept this."
The French National Assembly had voted to approve a first reading of a law that would ban anyone from denying that the killings of hundreds of thousands of Armenians by Ottoman Turk forces during World War I amount to genocide.
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