ANKARA, Oct 6: Turkey warned France on Friday that bilateral political and economic ties will suffer if the French parliament approves a law making it a punishable offence to deny the Armenian ‘genocide’.

“The Armenian issue has poisoned bilateral ties in the past, but the bill will inflict irreparable damage on our relationship,” foreign ministry spokesman Namik Tan told a press conference here.

He warned the move could jeopardise ‘investments, the fruit of years of work, and France will — so to speak — lose Turkey’.

France is one of Turkey’s main trade partners, with a volume of 8.2 billion euros last year. Mr Tan appealed to the French parliament to block the bill.

“Our expectation is that France will avoid taking the wrong step,” he said, arguing that adoption of the bill would mean the elimination of freedom of expression in France.

The French National Assembly is expected to convene on Oct 12 to discuss the bill that would make denying Armenians were the victims of a genocide during World War I punishable by up to five years in prison and a fine of 45,000 euros.

The bill follows on a 2001 French law officially recognising the massacres as genocide.

In French law, the same punishment is applicable to those who deny that the Jewish Holocaust took place.

“If the bill is adopted on Oct 12, the Turkish people will see it as a hostile act by France ... It will not be possible to contain public reaction,” Mr Tan said, referring to a possible boycott of French goods in Turkey.—AFP