Turkey suspends military ties with France over 'genocide row'

French navy soldiers stand guards on the upper deck of the 

"GUEPRATTE" frigate (AFP Photo / Fayez Nureldine)

 The Turkish Prime Minister, Tayyip Erdogan, says Ankara will rescind an agreement allowing French military planes to land, and warships to dock, in the country. This brings the conflict over a "genocide bill" proposed in France to the NATO level.

Turkish state TV had earlier reported plans to withdraw the country's Ambassador to France. It follows a vote in France's lower house of Parliament in favor of a law that would deem denial of genocide a crime.

Though the proposed bill cites genocides in general, Ankara believes the law targets the 1915 ethnic cleansing of Armenians in the Ottoman Empire – which Ankara denies to qualify as genocide.

The bill, proposing a penalty of up to one year in jail and a fine of 45,000 euro ($58,870) to those who deny or "outrageously minimize" sufferings due to genocide, now awaits ratification in the French Senate. The law may just as well die there, as was the fate of an earlier draft this year. 

Before the vote in the French Parliament, Turkey warned of dire consequences for France if the law is adopted. As both countries are members of NATO, the row could complicate relations within the bloc.