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The French Senate voted late Monday to criminalize any public denial of what new legislation calls the Ottoman Empire's genocide of Armenians, triggering fresh condemnation from modern Turkey.

Relations between France and Turkey have already deteriorated since the National Assembly -- the lower house of the French parliament -- voted to approve the bill in December. The Turkish government called Monday's vote "an example of irresponsibility" and vowed to "express our reaction against it in every platform."

It is already illegal in France to deny the Holocaust of World War II, a crime punishable by a year in prison and a fine of 45,000 euros ($58,500). The same punishment would be used under the Armenian legislation.