Turkey threatens new sanctions in France 'genocide' row

ANKARA - Agence France-Presse

Turkish citizens from France and other European countries demonstrate in Paris Saturday Jan. 21, 2012, to protest against a law that would make it a crime to deny "genocide" in Armenia. AP photo

Turkey on Monday threatened France with new sanctions over a bill criminalising the denial of the Armenian genocide as the French Senate prepared to vote on the legislation.

"We have previously determined the steps to be taken if the bill is finally adopted. No one should doubt it," state-run Anatolia news agency quoted Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu as saying.

Davutoglu has cancelled a trip to Brussels, where he was supposed to attend a meeting of EU foreign ministers on Monday to decide on new sanctions against Iran over its nuclear drive.

The minister said he met Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan on Saturday to discuss Turkey's response if the French senate passes the controversial bill on Monday.

"Turkey is no longer the Turkey of 2001," Davutoğlu said, referring to the year when the French parliament recognized the Armenian genocide under the Ottoman rule.

Ankara froze political and military ties with France when the French lower house approved the bill last month, and promised further measures if the bill is passed by the Senate or is approved by President Nicolas Sarkozy, whose right-wing UMP party put forward the bill.