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Turkey unleashes diplomatic sanctions on France
The Turkish government announces diplomatic sanctions against France after French MPs pass a bill criminalising the denial of the 1915-16 Armenian genocide.
Armenia says up to 1.5 million were killed by the Turkish Ottoman Empire in 1915-16
Ankara declared that it is recalling its ambassador and ceasing political visits Turkish PM Recap Erdogan said. The law was passed by the French National Assembly and is due to go before the Senate next year. To date, more than 20 countries have formally recognised the 1915-16 killings as genocide.
The vote was not greeted by universal approval in France and Foreign Minister Alain Juppe had publicly opposed it. Under the bill, those found guilty of publicly denying genocide would face a year in jail and a fine of €45,000.
Armenia says up to the Ottoman Turks killed 1.5 million people in the 1915-16 campaign. On the other hand Turkey denies the notion of genocide and says closer to 300,000 people died. Turkey has resisted widespread calls from the international community for it to recognise the 1915-16 killings as genocide.
It is generally recognised that hundreds of thousands of Armenians died when the Ottoman Turks deported them en masse from eastern Anatolia to the Syrian desert and elsewhere in 1915-16. They were killed or died from starvation or disease. The total number of dead Armenians is disputed, however according to the International Association of Genocide Scholars, the death toll was "more than a million".
