Turkey freezes all ties with France: Erdoğan

ANKARA

Turkey's Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan speaks during a joint news conference with Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych (not pictured) in Ankara December 22, 2011. REUTERS Photo

Turkey's Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan said on Thursday a bill passed by France's lower house of parliament, making it a crime to deny genocide, was racist, discriminatory and xenophobic and said it had opened wounds with Paris that would be difficult to heal.Erdogan said Turkey was cancelling all economic, political and military meetings with NATO partner France and said Ankara would cancel permission for French military planes to land and warships to dock in Turkey as a result of the bill.