France took the first step on Thursday to criminalising the denial of genocide, including the 1915 mass killing of Armenians by Ottoman Turks, prompting Ankara to recall its ambassador for consultations.

Tension has risen over the draft law put forward by members of President Nicolas Sarkozy's ruling party, with Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan warning there would be grave political and economic consequences if the bill passed.

A Turkish official said its ambassador in Paris had been recalled for consultations after lawmakers in France's National Assembly -- the lower house of parliament -- voted overwhelmingly in favour of the bill. It will now be debated next year in the Senate.

A French diplomatic source said Paris regretted the move and considered fellow NATO member Turkey an important partner.

"I don't understand why France wants to censor my freedom of expression," Yildiz Hamza, president of the Montargis association that represents 700 Turkish families in France, said outside the National Assembly.
Earlier, about 3,000 French nationals of Turkish origin demonstrated there peacefully ahead of the vote on a day that also marks 32 years since a Turkish diplomat was assassinated by Armenian militants in central Paris.

France passed a law recognising the killing of Armenians as genocide in 2001. At the time Turkey was in the midst of an economic crisis, and although it pressured French lawmakers, figures show trade between the two countries nevertheless grew steadily with little diplomatic backlash.

The French lower house first passed a bill criminalising the denial of an Armenian genocide in 2006, but it was rejected by the Senate in May this year. The new bill was made more general to outlaw the denial of any genocide, partly in the hope of appeasing the Turks.

Not a done deal

It could still face a long passage into law, though its backers want to see it completed before parliament is suspended at the end of February ahead of elections in the second quarter.Bernard Accoyer, speaker of the lower house, said on Wednesday he doubted the bill would pass by the end of the current parliament as the government had not made the bill priority legislation.

Armenia, backed by many historians and parliaments, says about 1.5 million Christian Armenians were killed in what is now eastern Turkey during World War One in a deliberate policy of genocide ordered by the Ottoman government.

Successive Turkish governments and the vast majority of Turks feel the charge of genocide is an insult to their nation. Ankara argues that there was heavy loss of life on both sides during fighting in the area.

Turkish anger, French elections

The French government has stressed that the bill, which mandates a 45,000-euro fine and a year in jail for offenders, is not its own initiative and pointed out that Turkey cannot impose unilateral trade sanctions.
Faced with Sarkozy's open hostility to Turkey's stagnant bid to join the European Union, and buoyed by a fast-growing economy, Ankara has little to lose by picking a political fight with Paris.

Ankara considers the bill, originally proposed by 40 deputies from Sarkozy's party, a blatant attempt at winning the votes of 500,000 ethnic Armenians in France in next year's elections. It believes the measure would limit freedom of speech and represents an unnecessary meddling by politicians in a business best left to historians.

The French bill feeds the sense that many Turks share that they are unwanted by Europe and fires up nationalist fervour. However, in a more self-confident Turkey, popular reaction has been more muted than in the past.

France has been pushing Turkey to own up to its history, just as France belatedly recognised the role of its collaborationist Vichy government during World War II in deporting Jews to Nazi concentration camps.
Ankara will announce sanctions against Paris, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Wednesday on the eve of a debate in the French parliament on a law criminalising the denial of the Armenian genocide by

France's estimated 400,000-strong ethnic Armenian population is seen as an important element in Sarkozy's support base as he prepares for a tough re-election battle in April next 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, a figure Ankara disputes.

Turkey rejects the term genocide and says between 300,000 and 500,000 Armenians, and at least as many Turks, died in combat or from starvation when Armenians rose up and sided with invading Russian forces.

France recognised the killings as genocide in 2001.