French senators on Monday (23 January) voted in a bill to outlaw denial of the Armenian genocide at the hands of the Ottoman Turks in 1915, prompting strong threats of economic retaliation from Ankara.
President Nicolas Sarkozy is widely expected to ratify the new measure in February in a move that Turkey said it would punish with "permanent sanctions if it is passed to law."
"This is totally unfair ... The historical interpretation of events cannot be judged by French legislation...
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Nikolaj joined EUobserver in 2012 and covers home affairs. He is originally from Denmark, but spent much of his life in France and in Belgium. He was awarded the King Baudouin Foundation grant for investigative journalism in 2010.