Turkey

The French Senate is to vote by the end of the month on a bill making it illegal to deny that the mass killing of Armenians was genocide.

Turkey has accused France of genocide during its colonial occupation of Algeria, after French parliament outlawed denial of 1915 Armenian genocide.

Franco-Turkish relations are nearing crisis point amid increasingly strained ties between Ankara and the European Union.

France has joined Turkey in calling for greater international pressure on Syria to stop its bloody repression of popular protests against Assad regime.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy urged Turkey to recognize the 1915 massacre of Armenians by Ottoman Turks as genocide, angering Ankara.