Protesters shout slogans against the U.S. after painting the star and the crescent of the Turkish national flag on a wall of the U.S. embassy in Ankara, Oct. 11, 2007. (Xinhua Photo) Photo Gallery>>>
ANKARA, Oct. 11 (Xinhua) -- Turkey on Thursday ordered its ambassador to the United States to return to Ankara in protest against a U.S. Congress vote to declare the killings of Armenians between 1915 and 1917 a genocide.
Foreign Ministry spokesman Levent Bilman announced that Ambasaador Nabi Sensoy will return Turkey and stay in the country for about one week or 10 days for consultations over the U.S. genocide vote, according to the semi-official Anatolia news agency.
"We are not withdrawing our ambassador. We have asked him to come to Turkey for consultations," stressed Bilman.
Protesters march during an anti-U.S. demonstration in Istanbul Oct. 11, 2007. Turkey warned on Thursday that relations with its NATO ally the United States would be harmed by a U.S. House committee's approval of a resolution calling the 1915 massacres of Armenians by Ottoman Turks genocide. The House of Representatives Foreign Affairs committee approved the resolution on Wednesday and it now goes to the House floor, where Democratic leaders say there will be a vote by mid-November. (Xinhua/Reuters Photo) Photo Gallery>>>
Earlier on Wednesday, the Foreign Affairs Committee of the U.S. House of Representatives approved a resolution by 27 votes to 21 votes to label the massacre of Armenians by the Ottoman Empire during World War I as an act of genocide.
The resolution drew immediately Turkish government's condemnation, though it would have no binding effect on the U.S. foreign policy.
"Our government regrets and condemns this decision. It is unacceptable that the Turkish nation has been accused of something that never happened in the past," the Turkish government said in a statement released by the foreign ministry.
"The committee's approval of this resolution was an irresponsible move, which at a greatly sensitive time will make relations with a friend and ally, and a strategic partnership nurtured over generations, more difficult," the Turkish authorities said in the statement.
Armenians say more than 1.5 million Armenians were killed in a systematic genocide under the Ottoman Empire during World War I.
But Turkey insists the Armenians were victims of widespread chaos and governmental breakdown as the 600-year-old empire collapsed in the years before 1923 when the modern Turkey was founded.
Although the U.S. leadership has warned against the pass of the resolution, the U.S. lawmakers gave their nod to the bill.
U.S. President George W. Bush on Wednesday urged Congress not to pass the bill, saying that it would do "great harm" to U.S. relations with Turkey, which in Bush's word as "a key ally in NATO and in the global war on terror."
U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Defense Secretary Robert Gates had also denounced the measure, saying "the passage of this resolution at this time would be very problematic for everything we are trying to do in the Middle East."
Some 70 percent of U.S. air cargo headed for Iraq goes through Turkey's airspace, as does about a third of the fuel used by the U.S. military in Iraq, according to Gates.
WASHINGTON, Oct. 11 (Xinhua) -- The United States expressed hope Thursday that Turkey's ambassador to Washington Nabi Sensoy would return quickly after he was recalled because a U.S. congressional panel voted to label the wartime massacre of Armenians under the Ottoman Empire as "genocide."
"We look forward to his quick return and will continue to work to maintain strong U.S.-Turkish relations," National Security Council spokesman Gordon Johndroe told reporters.Full story
WASHINGTON, Oct. 11 (Xinhua) -- U.S. House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Thursday she would present an Armenian "genocide" bill approved by a congressional panel to the entire House of Representatives despite objections from the White House and Turkey.
"It has come out of committee and it will go to the floor," Pelosi told reporters after the House Foreign Affairs Committee voted Wednesday to label the wartime massacre of Armenians under the Ottoman Empire as "genocide." Full story
ANKARA, Oct. 11 (Xinhua) -- Turkey criticized the U.S. House Foreign Affairs Committee on Thursday for adopting a resolution describing the killing of Armenians by the Ottoman Empire during World War I as an act of genocide. Full story
ANKARA, Oct. 11 (Xinhua) -- Turkey's Consumers' Union Thursday called on Turkish people to boycott U.S.-made products after the U.S. House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Committee approved a resolution calling 1915 Armenian incident a genocide. Full story
WASHINGTON, Oct. 11 (Xinhua) -- The White House expressed on Thursday its disappointment over a vote in the Congress labeling the Ottoman Empire's massacre of Armenians in World War I a "genocide." Full story
WASHINGTON, Oct. 10 (Xinhua) -- U.S. President George W. Bush on Wednesday urged Congress to reject legislation that would declare the World War I-era killings of hundreds of thousands of Armenians a genocide. Full story
