Algeria asks Turkey to drop French genocide talk.

Algerian Prime Minister Ahmed Ouyahia on Saturday asked Turkey to stop referring to its history as part of a problem that Turkey and France have, The Associated Press reported.

Ouyahia said countries have the right to defend their interests, but they have no right to “make the blood of Algerians their business,” Agence France-Presse (AFP) reported on Saturday. “We say to our [Turkish] friends: Stop making capital out of Algeria’s colonization,” the news agency quoted the prime minister as saying. Ouyahia further accused Turkey of having provided material support to France since it was a member of NATO during the Algerian War.

Following a French lower house vote last month to penalize anyone who refuses to term the mass killings of Armenians at the onset of World War I as genocide, Turkey halted its political contact with France, warning the country that relations would further chill if the bill passes through the senate.

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, in an attempt to turn the bull’s-eye toward France, has accused French officials of engaging in dirty and bloody acts throughout its colonial period and advised them to reflect on France’s mistakes before they pass judgment on other countries.

Erdoğan pointed out that hundreds of thousands of people lost their lives in Rwanda and Algeria under French colonial rule, blaming the deaths on French leaders. Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu joined Erdoğan in his criticism of alleged French genocides, which they suggested the country has never answered for, and warned that Turkey would bring up the topic all over the world, most significantly in Africa, where the crimes were allegedly committed.

The bill the French parliament passed onto the senate last month now awaits approval before it can become law.