A new French law making it a crime to publicly deny the Ottoman Empire’s genocide of Armenians a century ago was ruled unconstitutional Tuesday by France’s Constitutional Council.
The measure, which triggered condemnation from modern Turkey, was given final passage by the French Senate and signed into law by President Nicolas Sarkozy last month.
Sarkozy’s office immediately issued a statement calling for a new version of the law "taking into account the decision of the Constitutional Council."
"The president believes that genocide denial is intolerable and must be punished in this regard," the statement said.
The country’s highest judicial body reviewed it at the request of National Assembly members and French senators.
"The Council deems the law unconstitutional," a short statement from the court said Tuesday.
The Turkish government called it "an example of irresponsibility" and vowed to "express our reaction against it in every platform" when the bill passed the National Assembly -- the lower house of the French parliament -- in December.
The Turkish Foreign Ministry issued a statement Tuesday that called it "pleasing that a grave mistake has been corrected by the highest legal authority in France."
"We hope France will from now on be in a constructive attitude for the dispute between Turkey and Armenia on history to be considered on a fair and scientific basis, and will make contributions that support a solution rather than further deepening the problem," the Turkish ministry said. "Such an attitude will contribute to the Turkish-French relations to improve in all areas as well."