Turkey recalls envoy from France after Armenia bill approved.
Turkey on Thursday recalled its ambassador in Paris hours after the French National Assembly passed a measure to make it a crime in France to deny that the mass killings of Armenians in 1915 amounted to 'genocide', an earlier announced response to the possible approval of the bill.
Turkish Ambassador Tahsin Burcuoglu has been recalled to Ankara for consultations for an indefinite period of time as Engin Solakoglu, undersecretary of the Turkish Embassy in Paris, also said would happen last week.
Despite strong protests by Turkey, French lawmakers in the National Assembly - the lower house of parliament - voted overwhelmingly in favor of the bill, which will now be debated next year in the Senate. The bill makes denial of the alleged Armenian genocide a crime punishable by a one-year prison sentence and a fine of 45,000 euros.
The approval of the bill has drawn strong condemnation from both the Turkish government and the opposition. In an immediate comment on the approval of the bill, Labor Minister Faruk Chelik said he sees the measure as “pitiful.” “They assume that they can change historical facts with a law. This is a measure which is against all EU standards, norms and laws. I see this as “pitiful,” he told reporters in Parliament.
The main opposition Republican People's Party's (CHP) Party Council (PM) also issued a condemnation over the bill, accusing the French Assembly of betraying its own history with Thursday's decision. The CHP said its members will follow the developments regarding the fate of the bill closely.
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