Turkish Foreign Minister commented on French President Nicolas Sarkozy’s instruction to draw up a new text of the bill penalizing the Armenian Genocide denial.

“President of France Nicolas Sarkozy initially waged a war against history and freedom of speech, now he wages it against the Constitutional Council,” TRT Haber quoted Ahmet Davutoglu as saying.

The French Constitutional Council ruled the bill criminalizing the Armenian Genocide denial adopted earlier by the Senate of France as unconstitutional. The Council justified it by the fact that the law “contradicts Article 33 of the Constitution of France and the freedom of speech”.

On January 23, the French Senate passed the bill criminalizing the Armenian Genocide denial with 127 votes for and 86 against. If signed into law by the President, the bill would impose a 45,000 euro fine and a year in prison for anyone in France who denies this crime against humanity committed by the Ottoman Empire.

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.