Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has said Turkey would retaliate by all diplomatic means if the French senate approved a bill making denial Armenian claims that their ancestors were subject to a "genocide" in Anatolia during the World War I punishable in France with a prison term of one year and a fine of 45 thousand euros, Anadolu Agency reported.
"I would like to reaffirm that we will resort to all diplomatic means to stand against such unjust, biased, populist and unlawful attempts," Erdogan told reporters in a joint press conference with Mustafa Abdel Jalil, head of Libya's National Transitional Council.
The bill is set to be debated in the French senate floor next week on Thursday.
The French parliament is set to vote next week on a piece of legislation that could make denying the 1915 events that took place in Turkey as "genocide" punishable by up to one year in prison and a fine of 45,000 euros. The Turkish reaction escalated over the week from mild suggestion to the French to reconsider the voting, to outright warnings that France will be facing severe consequences, including the withdrawal of the Turkish ambassador from Paris, as the day of the voting, Monday the Dec. 19, approached.