Ambassador to Turkey recalled to US

October 12, 2007

Washington, DC - Turkey is recalling its ambassador due to a vote in Congress labelling the mass killing of Armenians as genocide.

The passing of the resolution by a House committee on Wednesday despite appeals by the Bush administration was denounced by President Abdullah Gul.

Turkey accepts there were mass killings in 1915-17 but denies genocide.

Turkey's foreign ministry said the ambassador would return to Turkey for a stay of "a week or 10 days".

"We are not withdrawing our ambassador," said ministry spokesman Levent Bilman.

"We have asked him to come to Turkey for some consultations."

President Bush had argued against the resolution, saying its passage would do "great harm" to relations with "a key ally in Nato and in the global war on terror".

Turkey is a regional operational hub for the US military, and some suggest access to Incirlik airbase or other supply lines crucial to US forces in Iraq and Afghanistan, could be affected by the row.

The US also fears Turkey may make a military incursion into northern Iraq to neutralise Kurdish separatist guerrillas there, who continue to cross the border to ambush Turkish troops.

For Turkey's president, the US vote showed that some US politicians had "closed their ears to calls to be reasonable and once again sought to sacrifice big problems for small domestic political games".

"This unacceptable decision of the committee, like similar ones in the past, is not regarded by the Turkish people as valid or of any value," Gul said late on Wednesday.