France's lower house of parliament approved a bill on Thursday making it a crime to deny Armenians suffered genocide at the hands of Ottoman Turks, provoking anger in Turkey and raising fresh doubts about its EU ambitions.
The Turkish Foreign Ministry said the vote would hurt ties between the two Nato allies and analysts warned it would complicate Turkey's efforts to secure European Union membership.
The bill might never become law because it still needs to be ratified by the upper house Senate and president, but French firms fear they will suffer an immediate backlash in Turkey.
Turkey denies accusations some 1.5 million Armenians were massacred during the disintegration of the Ottoman Empire in World War One, arguing that Armenian deaths were a part of general partisan fighting in which both sides suffered.
However, France's Armenian community - roughly 500,000-strong and one of the largest in Europe - had pushed hard for the bill which was carried by 106 votes to 19.
The legislation establishes a one-year prison term and 45,000 euro ($56,570) fine for anyone denying the genocide - the same sanction as for denying the Nazi genocide of Jews. "Does a genocide committed in World War One have less value than a genocide committed in World War Two? Obviously not," Philippe Pomezec, a parliamentarian with the ruling Union for a Popular Movement (UMP), said during the debate.
The French government did not support the motion and promised on Thursday to oppose it when it gets to the Senate, but Turkey said the damage had already been done.
"French-Turkish relations ... have been dealt a severe blow today as a result of the irresponsible false claims of French politicians who do not see the political consequences of their actions," the Turkish Foreign Ministry said in a statement.
Analysts say more is at stake than just bilateral ties, arguing that the vote will encourage Turkish nationalists and undermine pro-EU liberals by exposing the depth of anti-Turkey feelings in a founding member of the European Union.
"It is the intention of those French politicians who backed this bill to antagonise Turkey, to push it to the limit and force it to throw in the towel," said Cengiz Candar, an EU expert at Istanbul's Bahcesehir University.
Some 60 protestors carried a black wreath down Istanbul's main commercial street on Thursday and laid it in front of the French consulate. Most French people oppose Turkey joining the 25-nation bloc and fear over its potential membership was one of the reasons why France voted last year to reject the EU constitution.
Anti-Turkish feeling was palpable as lawmakers left parliament on Thursday. Influential UMP politician Patrick Devedjian, himself of Armenian descent, said Muslim Turkey was not a democratic country and did not deserve EU membership. "It is like they are asking to enter a club but have already smashed its windows," he told Reuters television.
The European Commission warned France that its bill could hinder efforts to end decades of dispute over the killings and noted that criteria for talks on Turkey's possible EU entry did not include recognition of the Armenian killings as genocide.
An hour after the vote, Turkey's best-known novelist, Orhan Pamuk, won the Nobel prize for Literature.
Pamuk recently went on trial for insulting "Turkishness" after telling a Swiss newspaper nobody in Turkey dared mention the Armenian massacres. The court eventually dropped charges. French businesses fear trade will suffer because of the row, with French exports to Turkey worth 4.66 billion euros in 2005.
"Time will show. But I cannot say it will not have any consequences," Turkish Economics Minister Ali Babacan told reporters in Brussels. Asked about the threat of a boycott to French goods, he said: "As the government of Turkey, we are not encouraging something like that. But this is the people's decision."
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