Agence France Presse
March 6, 2010 Saturday 11:39 AM GMT

Turkish PM says US genocide vote a ‘parody’

ANKARA, March 6 2010

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan Saturday slammed as a
"parody" a US Congress panel’s resolution branding the Ottoman-era
massacre of Armenians as genocide and warned it would harm countries
concerned.

Thursday’s approval of the resolution at the US House Foreign Affairs
Committee was the product of "erroneous policies" and "will not bind
us," Erdogan said in televised remarks.

Turkey will "not be deterred by such a comedy, a parody, a fait
accompli," he said in a speech to a businessmen’s group in Istanbul.

"Let me say quite clearly that this resolution will not harm us. But
it will damage bilateral relations between countries, their interests
and their visions for the future. We will not be the losers," he
added.

An infuriated Turkey recalled its ambassador to Washington after the
committee narrowly approved the text on Thursday, opening the door for
a vote at the full House of Representatives.

The non-binding resolution calls on President Barack Obama to ensure
that US foreign policy reflects an understanding of the "genocide" and
to label the mass killings as such in his annual statement on the
issue.

Armenians say up to 1.5 million of their kin were killed during World
War I as the Ottoman Empire fell apart, a label that Turkey
categorically rejects.