Turkey has decided to keep sanctions on France it imposed after French parliament endorsed a bill making it a crime to deny the Armenian Genocide, government spokesman said.

According to Today’s Zaman, Bülent Arınç, who is also deputy prime minister, told reporters following a cabinet meeting on Monday, March 5, that the bill was brought to the agenda of the meeting and hailed the French Constitutional Council for ruling the bill “unconstitutional”.

Shortly after the ruling was announced, Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu said the Cabinet would meet to consider whether to restart economic, political and military contacts with France that were frozen after the French parliament passed the law on Jan. 23.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy asked his government last Tuesday to draft a new version of the genocide denial law. “The President of the Republic considers that [genocide] denial is intolerable and must therefore be punished,” his office wrote in a statement.

Arınç downplayed Sarkozy’s second attempt to bring a modified version of the bill, saying that the French Assembly will go to recess on Tuesday before campaign for presidential elections slated for April.

Arınç said Davutoğlu stated during the cabinet meeting that previously announced sanctions and measures taken against France must continue.