Turkish PM: 'France has Blackened Freedoms'

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has severely criticized France for adoption of a controversial bill on so-called Armenian genocide, saying that it had defamed the freedoms. "France has blackened freedoms", PM Erdogan remarked during a speech he delivered on Friday at the opening of new terminal of Ankara Airport, in his first comments on the French bill following its adoption. Erdogan censured France which has been trying to block Turkey's European Union (EU) membership under the pretense of Article 301 of its penal code, adding that "They should first rectify the backward step they have taken on freedom of expression and then come to us".