French President Nicolas Sarkozy instructed the government to submit a new draft law punishing the denial of the Armenian Genocide, CNN Turk reported.

The French Constitutional Council ruled that a bill recently adopted by the French Senate making it a crime to deny the Armenian Genocide was anti-constitutional.

In a statement the Council said the bill adopted by parliament on January 23 represented an “unconstitutional breach of the practice of freedom of expression and communication.”

Turkey reacted furiously when the Senate approved the law. Ankara halted political and military cooperation with France and was threatening to cut off economic and cultural ties if the law took effect.