KEY POINTS:
Turkey recalled its ambassador to the US for consultations after a vote in a United States congressional committee branded killings of Armenians by Ottoman Turks genocide.
The committee's decision is expected to weaken US influence over Turkey at a time when the Turkish 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 authorise a military push although analysts say a large cross-border operation is unlikely.
Washington fears such an offensive could destabilise Iraq's most peaceful area and potentially the wider region.
The US House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Committee has approved a resolution branding the killings during World War I 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 US 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 said.
In Washington, Ambassador Nabi Sensoy played down the significance of his return to Ankara. "This is a normal affair, especially after certain important developments take 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 US-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 US committee.
"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 said in Brussels.
Anti-US sentiment has steadily risen in Turkey, partly because of what Turks regard as an unfair portrayal of Turks during World War I, but also because of what they say is a failure by the US and Iraq to crack down on some 3000 Kurdish rebels based in northern Iraq.
Last month Turkey signed an anti-terror agreement with Iraq in an attempt to halt these Kurdish guerrilla attacks. Turkish military officials said Kurdish rebels killed 13 soldiers in fighting on Monday in Sirnak province, which borders Iraq.
Such attacks have put domestic pressure on Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan which has increased following the Armenian resolution. The army has been pressing for months to be allowed to mount a major cross-border operation against the rebels.
"Unfortunately there is a linkage between the bill and a Turkish incursion into northern Iraq because the Turkish public will be much angered towards the United States and the Government will feel so as well," said Faruk Logoglu, an influential former Turkish ambassador to Washington.
The United States relies heavily on Turkish bases to supply its war effort in Iraq. Any Turkish offensive into northern Iraq would seriously strain ties with Washington and possibly hurt Turkey's bid for European Union membership.
- Reuters
