Ankara, March 05: Turkey has recalled its ambassador to Washington after a US congressional panel once again voted to brand the killing of Armenians by Ottoman forces during World War I as “genocide,” a move that has become a yearly routine in Capitol Hill.
“We condemn this resolution which charges Turkish nation with a crime it did not commit. Under the influence of political moves, supporters of this resolution have taken a wrong and unjust stance, ignoring historical facts and differences of opinion among experts,” the Turkish government said in a statement on Thursday.
The statement added, “The resolution includes tangible errors related to the incidents of 1915, and it has completely been prepared with a one-sided approach.”
The Turkish government also expressed concern that the non-binding resolution, geared more towards an anti-Turkey publicity, could damage Ankara-Washington relations and the ongoing efforts to normalize relations between Turkey and Armenia.
Meanwhile, Turkish President Abdullah Gul expressed regret on the adoption of the Armenian ‘genocide’ draft by the US House of Representative committee on Foreign Affairs. He said his country had been accused of a crime it did not commit, reiterating that the resolution would harm Turkish-US relations.
Turkey and Armenia signed two protocols last October to normalize relations; however, parliaments of the two countries have not yet passed them in order to bring a century-old mutual hostility to an end.
Yerevan claims that that up to 1.5 million Armenians lost lives during and just after the World War I, 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 internationally recognized as genocide.
Turkey, however, disputes the Armenian figures and account of the incident. Ankara puts the figure of Armenian victims at 300,000 and insists that as many Ottoman Turks were also killed in the civil unrest during the Ottoman Empire’s collapse.
US observers say that the powerful Armenian lobby in the US has played a key role in making sure that the US Congress issues the genocide resolution against Turkey as an annual routine.
Only 20, mainly Western, governments have recognized the Armenian claim of Turkish genocide, in a symbolic gesture that, according to observers, reflects the West’s historic anti-Muslim bias.
——-Agencies