Turkey’s defense industry business with France will be badly affected if French Senate approves the bill criminalizing denial of the Armenian Genocide, Turkish procurement officials threatened.

According to Hurriyet Daily News, it will affect a nearly $4 billion program to buy long-range missile and air defense systems. For this contract the pan-European Eurosam, maker of the SAMP/T Aster 30, is competing with a U.S. partnership between Raytheon and Lockheed Martin, maker of Patriot air defense systems, Russia’s Rosoboronexport, marketing the S300, and China’s CPMIEC (China Precision Machinery Export-Import Corp.), offering its HQ-9.

Turkey’s top decision-making body on defense procurement is expected to select a winner this summer. Eurosam is owned by MBDA of Italy, MBDA of France and France’s Thales group. As a result French companies have a nearly two-thirds stake in Europe’s top anti-missile maker. Italy is currently dealing with the Turkish government on this program, making use of its excellent defense ties with Ankara, but the large French presence is key, Turkish officials say.

“France can forget about this project if the bill passes. I agree with the view that this would be very good news for the Americans,” a senior Turkish procurement official said.

NATO officials earlier warned Turkey against selecting the Russian or Chinese options because of security concerns.