France Defies Turkey to Vote on Armenian Genocide Bill

France defied a threat of sanctions from Turkey, a key NATO ally and one of Europe's fastest growing economies, on Thursday, when lawmakers voted to ban the denial of the Armenian genocide.

Turkey had threatened diplomatic and trade sanctions if the bill passed, accusing President Nicolas Sarkozy's right-wing UMP party of pandering to France's large Armenian community ahead of elections next year.

France's lower house, the National Assembly, was sparsely attended for a debate held a few days before the Christmas holiday, but around 50 lawmakers from all parties backed the bill and only a half dozen voted against.

The draft law will now be considered by the Senate and parliamentary committees, and may be enacted early next year, despite reported concerns from the foreign ministry about damage to France's ties with Turkey.

France works with Turkey on dealing with the Iranian nuclear stand-off and the crisis in Syria, and French firms want to tap its large market, so the effects of a breakdown in relations could be major.

But many lawmakers were determined to pass a bill that would make it a crime to deny the almost century-old deaths of hundreds of thousands of Armenians at the hands of Turkish Ottoman forces amounted to genocide.

"We're not trying to write history but to make an indispensable political act," Patrick Devedjian, a lawmaker of Armenian descent, told parliament.

He noted that several Turkish writers had been prosecuted for the reverse offence of "affirming the existence" of the 1915 genocide and claimed that Turkey had recognized in 1919 that crimes had been committed.

"Now, Turkey is falling into revisionism and denies its own history," he claimed, to general support from his colleagues.

The law penalizes the denial of any massacre recognized as genocide by the state, but so far this list only includes the Holocaust and the Armenian genocide -- and Holocaust denial is penalized under French law.

The debate was held under tight security, after around 4,000 Turkish expatriates living in France gathered outside parliament to protest the vote and to denounce the dark periods in France's own history.

The official line from Sarkozy's government is that the genocide law is an idea of parliament. On Thursday it defended the right of lawmakers to vote on the issue, without specifically endorsing it.

But the government made sure there was time on the parliamentary calendar to vote on the issue, and it is largely supported by members of Sarkozy's UMP. Turkey has said it blames the French "executive".

According to the satirical weekly Le Canard Enchaine, France's Foreign Minister Alain Juppe is furious about the "stupid" bill, arguing that it will provoke a damaging rift with Ankara for purely political ends.

Juppe's office refused to confirm or deny the report.

More than one member of the UMP spoke against the law, which also has the support of some opposition Socialists.

"It's in no one's interests to pour oil on the fire in this fragile, sensitive and strategic region," said Michel Diefenbacher, head of parliament's Franco-Turkish friendship committee.

"What would we say, we French, if some other country came and told us what it thinks about the Vendee massacre?" he demanded, referring to mass killings in the 1790s in western France in the wake of the French Revolution.

France is home to around 500,000 citizens of Armenian descent and they are seen as a key source of support for Sarkozy and the UMP ahead of presidential and legislative elections in April and June nest year.

Armenians say up to 1.5 million of their forebears were killed during World War I by the forces of Turkey's former Ottoman Empire.

Turkey disputes the figure, arguing that only 500,000 died, and denies that it was genocide, ascribing the toll to the fighting and accusing the Armenians of siding with Russian invaders.

Turkey brands the French law an attack on free expression and historical inquiry.

On Wednesday, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said: "Tomorrow probably I will announce what we will do at the first stage and we will announce what kind of sanctions we will have at the second and third stages."

Franco-Turkish relations are often tense -- Sarkozy is a firm opponent of allowing Turkey to join the European Union -- but 1,000 French firms work there and trade between the two is worth 12 billion euros per year.

Much of Europe, including France, is facing recession amid a sovereign debt crisis, but Turkey enjoys growth rates in excess of eight percent and, with 78 million people, it is a huge potential market.

The French law would impose a 45,000 euro fine and a year in prison for anyone in France who denies the genocide.