Turkey recalls ambassador to U.S. over Armenians

By Paul de Bendern and Evren Mesci

ANKARA (Reuters) - NATO member 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.

The committee's decision is expected to weaken U.S. influence over Turkey at a time when the government is considering a military incursion into mainly Kurdish northern Iraq to fight Kurdish rebels.

Turkey's prime minister will ask parliament next week to authorize a military push although analysts say a large cross-border operation remains unlikely.

Washington fears such an offensive could destabilize Iraq's most peaceful area and potentially the wider region.

The U.S. House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Committee approved on Wednesday a resolution branding the killings during World War One as genocide.

The issue of the Armenian massacres is deeply sensitive in Turkey, where it is a crime to portray them as "genocide."

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.

Turkey, which has the second largest army in NATO, has said bilateral ties and military cooperation could be damaged if Congress passes the measure.

"We called back our ambassador to Washington for consultations. It should not be understood that we have pulled him back permanently," a senior Turkish diplomat told Reuters.

In Washington, Ambassador Nabi Sensoy played down the significance of his return to Ankara. "This is a normal affair especially after certain important development takes place," he told reporters outside his residence.

Gordon Johndroe, a spokesman for President George W. Bush who strongly opposed the House resolution, said: "We look forward to (the ambassador's) quick return and will continue to work to maintain strong U.S.-Turkish relations."

Ankara rejects the Armenian position, backed by many Western historians and some foreign parliaments, that up to 1.5 million Armenians suffered genocide at the hands of Ottoman Turks. Turkey says many Muslim Turks died alongside Christian Armenians in inter-ethnic conflict as the Ottoman Empire collapsed.

Armenian President Robert Kocharyan welcomed the decision by the U.S. committee. Turkey has no diplomatic ties with Armenia.

"The fact that Turkey has adopted a position up to now on genocide does not mean that it can bind other states to deny the historic truth as well," Kocharyan told reporters in Brussels.

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