Turkey recalls its envoy from Germany over Armenian 'genocide' vote

The Turkish prime minister on Thursday announced that Ankara has recalled its ambassador to Germany after the German parliament passed a symbolic resolution that declares the 1915 massacre of Armenians by Ottoman Turkish forces a "genocide".

Ambassador Huseyin Avni Karslioglu was expected to fly back to Turkey on Thursday afternoon, according to the Sueddeutsche Zeitung newspaper.

The Turkish government reacted furiously to the decision of the German parliament to pass the motion, which was almost unanimous, with just one person voting against and another abstaining.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who was currently on a state visit to Kenya, has said the German resolution will seriously impact relations between the two countries.

Prime Minister Binali Yildirim condemned the move and said in a speech in the Turkish capital Ankara that a "racist Armenian lobby" was responsible for the vote decision of the German parliament.

The ruling AK Party in Turkey said the move had seriously damaged relations between the two countries, while Turkish Deputy Prime Minister Numan Kurtulmus was equally scathing, calling the German parliament's resolution a "historic mistake".

In the build-up to the ballot, numerous Turkish politicians warned that relations between the two countries would suffer if the motion was passed to recognise the mass killings during the First World War as a genocide.

However, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who missed the vote due to prior engagements, said that Berlin's relationship with Ankara was broad and strong.

--IANS

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