Turkish anger at US Armenian 'genocide' vote

Turkey has reacted angrily to a US congressional panel's resolution describing as genocide killings of Armenians in World War I.

PM Recep Tayyip Erdogan said his country had been accused of a crime it did not commit, adding the resolution would harm Turkish-US relations.

Ankara has recalled its ambassador to Washington for consultations and says it is considering other responses.

Correspondents say it is still an extremely sensitive issue in Turkey.

The government of Turkey, a key American ally and fellow Nato member, had lobbied hard for the American Congress not to vote on the issue.

The White House had also warned that the vote would harm reconciliation talks between Turkey and Armenia.

Delegation

The resolution was narrowly approved by the House Foreign Affairs Committee.

It calls on President Barack Obama to ensure that US foreign policy reflects an understanding of the "genocide" and to label the World War I killings as such in his annual statement on the issue.

It was approved by 23 votes to 22 by the committee.

A Turkish parliamentary delegation had gone to Washington to try to persuade committee members to reject the resolution.

The BBC's Jane O'Brien in Washington says Turkey must be hoping that, as with a similar resolution two years ago, the issue will not come to the floor of the House for a full vote.

In 2007, it passed the committee stage, but was shelved after pressure from the George W Bush administration.

Turkey accepts that atrocities were committed but argues they were part of the war and that there was no systematic attempt to destroy the Christian Armenian people.

The Armenian government welcomed the vote, calling it "an important step towards the prevention of crimes against humanity".

Too important

During his election campaign Mr Obama promised to brand the mass killings genocide.

In October last year, Turkey and Armenia signed a historic accord normalising relations between them after a century of hostility.

Armenia wants Turkey to recognise the killings as an act of genocide, but successive Turkish governments have refused to do so.

Hundreds of thousands of Armenians died in 1915, when they were deported en masse from eastern Anatolia by the Ottoman Empire. They were killed by troops or died from starvation and disease.

Armenians have campaigned for the killings to be recognised internationally as genocide - and more than 20 countries have done so.