Turkey warned the US on Thursday that relations with its NATO ally would be harmed if the US House Committee approves a resolution to call the 1915 massacre of Armenians by Ottoman Turks genocide, Reuters reported.
On 10 October, the House's Foreign Affairs Committee voted 27-21 ignoring President Bush's objections and approved the resolution deeming it genocide in US foreign policy, according to RIA Novosti.
A government statement said the "irresponsible" resolution, voted by the House's Foreign Affairs Committee, was likely to endanger bilateral relations. "We still hope that the House of Representatives will have enough good sense not to take this resolution further," said the statement. To do so, it added, would jeopardise a strategic partnership with an ally and friend and would be an 'irresponsible attitude', it added. "It is unacceptable that the Turkish nation should be accused of a crime that it never committed in its history."
Once the resolution was approved, the document was submitted to the House of the Representatives for further consideration. Leaders of the democratic majority promise to hold the vote on the resolution by mid-November. The resolution is not compulsory for the US President but it still has great symbolic and international importance.
Turkey having the second largest army among the NATO countries used to warn Washington last year that passage of such a document would negatively affect US-Turkey relationships, in particular regarding military cooperation.