Turkey has condemned a vote by a US House of Representatives committee that branded the WWI massacre of Armenians as genocide.
A statement from the Turkish government says the resolution voted by the House Foreign Affairs Committee was likely to endanger bilateral relations. It also urged Congress not to take the resolution to a full house vote.
The non-binding measure passed by the committee concerns the actions of the Ottoman Empire.
The text of the measure says the WWI killings of Armenians was a genocide that should be acknowledged fully in US foreign policy towards Turkey along with the consequences of the failure to realise a just resolution.
The resolution was passed yesterday by 27 votes to 21 despite warnings by President George W Bush and Turkey. It will now go to the full house for a possible vote.
Shortly before the vote, Turkish prime minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan warned that the resolution would harm ties between the two NATO allies.
Mr Bush said the resolution was not the right response to the historic mass killings and its passage would do harm to US relations with Turkey.
Armenians say up to 1.5m people died in deportations and systematic killings in 1915-17 and want the killings internationally recognised as genocide. Turkey denies the killings were genocide.
