23:27, 16 November 2006

Armenians' genocide bill has sharply strained Turkish-French relations

Turkey has frozen military ties with France, the CNN-Turk TV Company has broadcast tonight with a reference to the commander-in-chief of the Turkish ground troops. Army General Ilker Bashbug also told, when answering journalists' questions in Northern Cyprus, that high-level military visits between Turkey and France had been cancelled.

The decision of the military department of Turkey is a response to adoption in October by the French National Assembly in the first reading of a bill envisaging criminal prosecution for non-recognition of the genocide of Armenians.

The European Commission has already criticized the adoption of the document, having claimed it to "undermine friendly efforts of the states."

The Armenians' genocide bill, which was voted for by the lower chamber of the French parliament on October 12, is qualifying negation of the genocide of Armenians committed by Turks to be a crime and assumes introduction of a respective punishment for such negation.