The lower chamber of the French parliament has backed a bill making the denial of genocide a crime, the Euronews TV channel reports on Thursday.
For France, this covers the mass killing of Armenians by Ottoman Turks in 1915. But that puts it at odds with Ankara which rejects the genocide description.
France stressed the bill was not a government initiative. But it has raised tension with Turkey whose Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has warned of political and economic consequences if it is passed.
Turkey has recalled its ambassador to France in protest.
