Turkey recalls ambassador to U.S. over Armenians By Paul de Bendern
ANKARA (Reuters) - Turkey recalled its ambassador to the United States for consultations on Thursday after a vote in a U.S. congressional committee branded killings of Armenians by Ottoman Turks genocide.
"We called back our ambassador to Washington for consultations. It should not be understood that we have pulled him back permanently. He will be in Ankara for consultations in a few days," a senior Turkish diplomat told Reuters.
Other Turkish diplomats confirmed the move.
The U.S. House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Committee approved on Wednesday a resolution branding the killings during World War One as genocide -- a charge Turkey hotly denies.
Turkey's prime minister will ask parliament next week to authorize a military push into north Iraq to fight Kurdish rebels although analysts say a large Turkish cross-border incursion remains unlikely
Washington fears an offensive could destabilize Iraq's most peaceful area and potentially the wider region.
Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan was under mounting pressure to act over the rebels after Wednesday's U.S. vote on the highly sensitive issue of the killings in 1915 of Armenians.
The resolution was proposed by a politician with many Armenian-Americans in his district.
Erdogan's government will seek authorization for a military incursion after a public holiday which ends on Sunday, senior ruling AK Party lawmaker Sadullah Ergin said.
Ergin said the resolution could go to parliament, where the AK Party has a big majority, after a cabinet meeting on Monday.
The United States relies heavily on Turkish bases to supply its war effort in Iraq. Any Turkish offensive into neighboring northern Iraq would seriously strain ties with Washington and possibly hurt Turkey's European Union accession bid.
EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana warned Turkey against a possible incursion.
"Any possibility of complicating even more the security situation in Iraq should not be welcome and therefore that's the message that we passed to our Turkish friends," he said.
Ankara says 3,000 rebels from the separatist Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) are based in northern Iraq from where they stage deadly attacks into Turkey. Dozens of soldiers and civilians have been killed in recent weeks, sparking an outcry.
Before recalling its ambassador, the Turkish government cautioned that relations with its NATO ally would be harmed by the U.S. committee's decision. The non-binding resolution now goes to the floor of the U.S. House of Representatives, where Democratic leaders say there will be a vote by mid-November.
Ankara will lobby Congress to prevent the bill from being approved. Erdogan is due to travel to Washington in early November for talks with U.S. President George W. Bush.
Turkey's army has frequently called on the government to give them a green light to pursue the PKK -- which is considered a terrorist group by Washington, Turkey and the EU -- into Iraq.
Big incursions by Turkey in 1995 and 1997, involving an estimated 35,000 and 50,000 troops respectively, failed to dislodge the rebels based in the Iraqi mountains. |
