ANKARA: Turkey’s foreign minister warned France on Monday that is ready to take new measures against Paris, in a last-ditch push to fend off a bill that would make it a crime to deny that the killing of Armenians by Ottoman Turks was genocide.

Turkey briefly recalled its ambassador to Paris and suspended military, economic and political ties when the bill was passed in France’s lower house last month. The French Senate is scheduled to take up the bill later on Monday.

“Turkey will continue to implement sanctions as long as this bill remains in motion,” Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu told reporters ahead of the debate. “We hope however, that this won’t be necessary and that common sense will reign in the French Senate.”

He did not spell out the measures Turkey would take if the bill — making it a crime to deny that the mass killings of Armenians in 1915 by Ottoman Turks constitute genocide — is passed.

The bill sets a punishment of up to one year in prison and a fine of (euro) 45,000 ($59,000) for those who deny or “outrageously minimise” the killings — putting such action on par with denial of the Holocaust.

France formally recognised the 1915 killings as genocide in 2001, but provided no penalty for anyone rejecting that.

The bill strikes at the heart of national honour in Turkey, which maintains there was no systematic campaign to kill Armenians and that many Turks also died during the chaotic disintegration of the Ottoman Empire.

Turkey has argued that the bill would compromise freedom of expression in France.

“European values are under threat,” Davutoglu said on Monday. “If each parliament takes decisions containing its own views of history and implements them, a new era of Inquisition will be opened in Europe.”

“Those who voice views that exclude this view of history will be jailed,” he said. “It would unfortunately, be a great shame for France to revive this.”—AP