Turkey slams France over genocide bill

Turkey`s PM sharply criticised France for a bill to make it a crime to deny that the World War I-era mass killing of Armenians was genocide.

Anakara: Turkey`s Prime Minister on Saturday
sharply criticised France for a bill to make it a crime to
deny that the World War I-era mass killing of Armenians was
genocide.

Saying France should investigate what he said was its own
"dirty and bloody history" in Algeria and Rwanda, Recep Tayyip
Erdogan insisted Turkey would respond "through all kinds of
diplomatic means."

Historians estimate that up to 1.5 million Armenians were
killed by Ottoman Turks as their Empire collapsed, an event
many international experts regard as genocide and that France
recognised as such in 2001.

Turkish leaders reject the term, arguing that the toll is
inflated and that those killed were victims of civil war and
unrest.

PTI