Turks protest US House panel´s agreement of genocide bill on Armenians

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Source: CCTV.com | 10-12-2007 10:08

Turkish leaders and media have criticized a US congressional panel approval of a bill describing the World War I-era killings of Armenians as genocide.

Members of the Turkish Labor Party have organized rallies in Ankara and Istanbul to protest the approval.

In Istanbul, people carrying Turkish flags chanted anti U.S. slogans in one of the city's main squares as police maintained a high security presence.

In the capital Ankara, another group of 50 people gathered in front of the U.S. embassy to protest. Some demonstrators placed a black wreath in front of the embassy, and a protester drew a Turkish flag on the embassy wall.

The U.S. House of Representatives Foreign Affairs committee approved the resolution on Wednesday, and it now goes to the House floor, where Democratic leaders say there will be a vote by mid-November.

Turkey says it will do all it can to stop the resolution being approved by the House of Representatives.

Ankara rejects the Armenian position that up to one and a half million Armenians suffered genocide by Ottoman Turks during World War One. The view is backed by many Western historians and some foreign parliaments.

Turkey says many Muslim Turks died alongside Christian Armenians in inter-ethnic conflict as the Ottoman Empire collapsed. The White House has warned the resolution would harm ties with Turkey, which is a NATO ally and an important logistics player in the Iraq war.