Oct. 12 (Bloomberg) -- France's lower house of Parliament defied pleas by Turkish officials and adopted a law punishing anyone denying that the killing of Armenians by Ottoman Turks in 1915 amounted to genocide.

Lawmakers of the National Assembly in Paris today voted 106- 19 in favor of the bill, which sets out fines of up to 45,000 euros ($56,460) and a year in prison for denying the events were genocide. French senators from the upper house will now examine the proposed legislation at a date yet to be specified.

The European Commission criticized the vote for hindering ``reconciliation'' over the killings, further straining the European Union's membership talks with Turkey. The Turkish Foreign Ministry said the vote ``dealt a heavy blow'' to bilateral relations with France.

``Turkey has no lesson to teach us on the repression of opinions,'' Patrick Devedjian, a French lawmaker of the governing UMP party of Armenian descent, said in the National Assembly today, in a reference to a Turkish law used to prosecute writers who challenge Turkey's denial of the genocide. ``The Turkish government is very hypocritical.''

Nobel Prize

Turkish novelist Orhan Pamuk, who was prosecuted by Turkey's courts last year after he said Turks had persecuted Armenians, was today awarded the 2006 Nobel prize in literature. Pamuk is one of about 80 writers and intellectuals tried by the nation's courts over the past year for ``insulting Turkishness.'' An Istanbul-based court threw out the case against Pamuk in January.

The European Union says Turkey's refusal to acknowledge that 1.5 million Armenians were massacred during World War I clouds the nation's bid for membership. Accession talks began a year ago. Turkey denies Armenian allegations of genocide, saying tens of thousands of ethnic Turks and Armenians were killed after Armenian groups sided with Russia in the war.

``Should this law indeed enter into force, it would prohibit the debate and the dialogue which is necessary for reconciliation on this issue,'' European Commission enlargement spokeswoman Krisztina Nagy told a Brussels press conference today.

Turkey may bar French companies from bidding for state-owned assets, including nuclear power stations, if the bill becomes law, according to a report Oct. 7 in Turkey's Hurriyet newspaper that cited Turkish Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul. Hurriyet today carried a headline ``Liberte, Egalite, Stupidite,'' to describe the French Parliament's move.

Turkey `Loses Nothing'
Bloomberg.com: Europe