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Turkey announced Thursday a set of sanctions against France over a French bill criminalizing the denial of the so-called "Armenian genocide", Xinhua reported.

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan told a news conference in the Turkish capital of Ankara that Turkey is cancelling all economic, political, military meetings with France.

Turkey halts "all political consultations, joint military activities and maneuvers" in response to the French approval of the bill, which stipulates criminal sentences and fines for these who refuse to recognize the killing of Armenians in 1915 under the as "genocide" in France, said Erdogan.

He added that Turkey also cancels permission for French military planes to land and warships to dock in Turkey.

Despite strong protests by Turkey, French lawmakers in the National Assembly, the lower house of the parliament, voted Thursday in favor of the bill, which will be debated next year in the Senate.

A group of Turkish protestors gathered in front of the French embassy in Ankara on Thursday to protest the approval of the bill by the French parliament's lower house, the semi-official Anatolia news agency reported.
The protestors carried banners that read "Stop France. We did not commit genocide but we defended our homeland," as the police were tightening security measures in front of the French embassy.

A protestor named Bulent Esinoglu was quoted as saying that " the French decision implied the Turkish nation was a killer".

Meanwhile, Chairman of Turkish Confederation of Tradesmen and Craftsmen (TESK) Bendevi Palandoken said Thursday that they strongly condemned the bill.

"We are removing all French products from our shelves," Palandoken said.

The main opposition Republican People's Party also issued a condemnation over the bill, saying that its members would closely follow the developments regarding the bill.

In January 2001, the French parliament adopted a bill recognizing the so-called "Armenian genocide". In 2006, the lower house of the French parliament approved a resolution criminalizing the denial of the so-called "Armenian genocide", but the resolution failed to pass in the Senate.

Turkey and Armenia have had no diplomatic or economic ties since Armenia declared independence in 1991. The two countries have been bogged down in a dispute over the World War I-era deaths of Armenians under the Ottoman rule. Armenia says the deaths occurred in a "genocide," while Turkey denies the charge and insists that the Armenians were victims of widespread chaos and governmental breakdown as the Ottoman Empire collapsed before modern Turkey was created.