Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said there would be a new era in relations between his country and France, following the election of Francois Hollande.

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said there would be a new era in relations between his country and France, following the election of Francois Hollande.

In a congratulatory phone call to Holande, Erdogan said: "Turko-French relations will from now on be free from artificial questions currently affecting them", according to an official in Erdogan's entourage.

"I am confident on the subject of a new era in our relations", Erdogan told Hollande, according to the official.
  
France's relations with Turkey have been frosty under outgoing president Nicolas Sarkozy, who opposed Turkish entry in the European Union.

They further soured after French lawmakers passed a bill with Sarkozy's backing that outlawed denying the 1915 Armenian genocide under Ottoman Turkey.