Turkey's foreign minister, Ahmet Davutoglu, has warned of a breakdown in ties with Washington after a committee of the US House of Representatives approved a resolution labeling the World War I-era mass killings of Armenians a “genocide.” Davutoglu said the Obama administration had not sufficiently put its weight behind efforts to block the vote. He called on the administration to prevent the measure from coming to the full House. Immediately after the vote on Thursday night, Ankara recalled its ambassador to the US for consultations.
Davutoglu said the issue was a matter of "honor" and said the country would assess what other measures to take. Some historians estimate up to 1.5 million Armenians were killed in the 1915/16 conflict, most of them at hands of Ottoman forces. Turkey, the successor state of the Ottoman Empire, denies the word genocide is an accurate description of the events.
The resolution will now go to the full House of Representatives, where its prospects are uncertain.
Earlier this week, the Jewish community of Turkey reiterated its opposition to the resolution tabled in Congress. In a statement, it said that “the assessment of historic events by parliaments is an unrealistic undertaking that does not serve to the interests of the parties involved, and that such matters can only be resolved by historians.”
However, a key Jewish Congressman urged passage of the resolution. Howard Berman, a Democrat from California and chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, said: "Turkey is a vital and, in most respects, a loyal ally of the United States in a volatile region. We have also been a loyal ally to Turkey, and should continue to be so. Be that as it may, nothing justifies Turkey's turning a blind eye to the reality of the Armenian genocide."
According to the 'Jerusalem Post', Ankara has not - unlike in previous years - sought to enlist the support of Israel and Jewish groups to combat the resolution.
