France-Turkey Relations - 2011 Crisis

2011 Crisis

Following approval of a French bill on 22 December 2011 that would make denial of Armenian genocide a crime punishable by one-year prison sentence and a fine of €45,000, the Turkish government froze bilateral relations and political meetings with France. Turkey also cancelled permission for French warships to dock and French military planes to land in Turkey, and every French military plane would have to request permission for every flight in order to use Turkish airspace. The Turkish government had previously warned the French government that passage of the bill in the senate, whereupon it would become law, would irreparably damage bilateral relations.

Because Turkey cut off access to its air space and sea lanes to French forces, France has had to deal with a military logistics problem, and found it difficult to get its troops to and from Afghanistan, since any other route was deemed both risky and "too costly", according to the French Defence Minister Gerard Longuet.

Subsequently, the Turkish Prime Minister has accused France of genocide of Algerians during the French colonial era.

On 28 February 2012, France’s Constitutional Council ruled that the new law is unconstitutional. The decision by France’s highest legal authority invalidated the law. France’s Constitutional Council, in deeming the bill unconstitutional, “gave a lesson in law to the French politicians who signed the bill, which was an example of absurdity,” Turkey’s Deputy Prime Minister Bulent Arinc said in a message. “This decision has averted a potentially serious crisis in Turkish-French ties.” He added.