Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has vowed never to visit France again if French senate would pass the proposed bill criminalizing the rejection of Armenian genocide claims on 23th January.

Ankara / NationalTurk – Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has vowed never to visit France again if the bill criminalizing the Armenian Genocide denial passes in the country’s Senate.

“I won’t go to France again if the bill is approved,” Erdogan said, answering what his reaction would be if the Armenian Genocide bill was approved by the French Senate. Erdogan claimed that the bill ”violates freedom of speech and is only a ploy for the coming elections in France in May to get the Armenian vote”

Armenian Genocide Claims : Fate of Turkey France Relations

The Turkish prime minister added he hopes that the French Senate would not vote for a decision that conflicts with the country’s history and stressed that France was an example in freedom of speach and the bill would severely jeopardize that stature.

Today, January 23, the French Senate will debate a bill criminalizing public denial of the Armenian Genocide. The motion was adopted on December 22, 2011, by the lower house of the French parliament – National Assembly.

France Senate votes Armenian Genocide Bill

If passed and enacted by the French Senate, the bill would impose a 45,000 euro fine and a year in prison for anyone in France who denies Armenian genocide claims  allegedly committed by Ottomon Empire. The bill needs to be approved by the Senate before it can come into effect.

Turks in France protest French Senate

Several thousand Franco-Turks demonstrated in central Paris on Thursday ahead of a parliamentary vote on a bill that would make it a crime to deny the 1915 incidents were genocide.

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