The United States expressed hope Thursday that Turkey's ambassador to Washington Nabi Sensoy would return quickly after he was recalled because a U.S. congressional panel voted to label the wartime massacre of Armenians under the Ottoman Empire as "genocide."
"We look forward to his quick return and will continue to work to maintain strong U.S.-Turkish relations," National Security Council spokesman Gordon Johndroe told reporters.
"We remain opposed to House Resolution 106 because of the grave harm it could bring to the national security of the United States," he said.
The U.S. House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Committee approved on Wednesday a resolution branding the killings of Armenians by Ottoman Turks between 1915 and 1917 a genocide.
Armenians say more than 1.5 million Armenians were killed in a systematic genocide in the hands of the Ottomans during World War I, before modern Turkey was born in 1923.
But Turkey insists the Armenians were victims of widespread chaos and governmental breakdown as the 600-year-old empire collapsed in the years before 1923.
Turkey condemned Thursday the "genocide" bill and recalled its ambassador in Washington to return to Turkey for consultation overthe matter.
It was reported that the U.S. administration is trying to persuade Democratic leaders not to schedule a vote in the entire House.
The White House, attaching great importance to Turkey's in the war on terror, said Wednesday that passing the vote would be "problematic for everything we're trying to do in the Middle East and would cause great harm to our efforts."
Source: Xinhua
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