Turkish Foreign Ministry on Feb. 17 summoned the Dutch charge d'affaires Erik Weststrate over reports that Dutch politicians were expected to submit a motion to the parliament recognizing the killings of Ottoman Armenians in 1915 as “genocide.”

"Turkey’s attitude towards 1917 events is based on historical facts and legal norms. Judicial opinions in European law have ruled that the 1915 events are a legitimate question of debate. When this is the case, it is not possible to approve initiatives politicizing the issue of 1915 events and taking it out of its historical and legal context to which Turkey and Turkish national approach sensitively," said a statement issued by the Turkish Foreign Ministry on Feb. 17.

Some Dutch deputies are expected to submit a motion on the issue to their parliament next week according to various media reports.

Armenia and Armenians in the diaspora say 1.5 million were killed by Ottoman forces in a targeted campaign to eradicate the Armenian people from what is now eastern Turkey.

Turkey takes a sharply different view, saying hundreds of thousands of both Turks and Armenians lost their lives as Ottoman forces battled the Russian Empire for control of eastern Anatolia during World War I.