Armenian slaughter

Turkey's foreign minister, Ahmet Davutoglu, warned of a breakdown in ties with the US after a congressional committee approved a resolution that said the World War I killing of Armenians was genocide.

Davutoglu said the Obama administration hadn't done enough to support efforts to block the Thursday vote, and minutes after the results were known, Turkey angrily and immediately withdrew its ambassador to the US, Namik Tan.

Davutoglu - who had sent Turkish lawmakers to Washington to lobby US congressmen on the matter - called the issue a matter of "honor."

On Thursday, the US Congress' Foreign Affairs committee passed the symbolic resolution to name the killing of Armenians in World War I by Ottoman forces "genocide." The vote passed by a slim margin - the result was 23 to 22 - despite strong opposition from Turkey and the White House.

Now the stage is set for a full vote in the House of Representatives.

"We condemn this resolution which accuses the Turkish nation of a crime it has not committed," the Turkish government said in a statement.

President Abdullah Gul added his protestations, saying the resolution had "no value in the eyes of the Turkish people" and warning it would deal a blow to fledgling efforts to end decades of hostility between Turkey and Armenia.

"Turkey will not be responsible for the negative ramifications that this vote may have in every field," he warned.

But Armenian Foreign Minister Edward Nalbandian welcomed the vote and called it a boost for human rights.

Pressure on Obama

Armenians say up to 1.5 million of their kin were killed during World War I by their Ottoman rulers as the empire was falling apart, a claim supported by several other countries. Turkey claims that only 300,000 to 500,000 Armenians and at least as many Turks died in what was a civil strife when Armenians rose up for independence and sided with invading Russian troops.

The non-binding resolution from the Foreign Affairs Committee calls on President Barack Obama to ensure that US foreign policy reflects an understanding of the "genocide" and to label the mass killings as such in his annual statement on the issue.

The US has traditionally condemned the killings, which occurred between 1915 and 1918, but refrained from calling them genocide, since it was anxious not to strain relations with Turkey, a NATO member and a key Muslim majority ally in the Middle East.

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton had urged the committee not to press ahead with the vote for fear it might harm reconciliation moves between Armenia and Turkey and said she hoped the bid would progress no further.

"We do not believe the full Congress will or should act on that resolution," Clinton told reporters.

But the US Congress took a more combative view. In his opening remarks Thursday, Howard Berman, the Democratic chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee, said "nothing justifies Turkey's turning a blind eye to the reality of the Armenian genocide.

"At some point, every nation must come to terms with its own history. And that is all we ask of Turkey," he said, urging his fellow lawmakers to support the legislation. Ankara also recalled its envoy from Washington in 2007 when a congressional committee passed a similar text.

Peace deal in jeopardy

Turkey and Armenia signed accords last year to normalize ties after a century of bitter hostility rooted in the 1915 mass killing and deportation of Armenians. The accords have yet to go through either parliament.

In his telephone call with Gul, Obama urged quick ratification of the accords, the White House said. "The Turkish people and all of us here are extremely upset," a Turkish member of parliament, Suat Kiniklioglu, told reporters in Washington after the vote, which took over two hours.

"You will see in the coming days and week that the Turkish parliament and the Turkish government will take all necessary actions to make our displeasure known in no uncertain terms. No one can equate our grandfathers with Nazis."

bk/jen/AFP/Reuters
Editor: Rob Turner