Armenian motion will not harm Turkish-German ties: PM

ANKARA

Turkey’s relationship with Germany will not suffer despite the German parliamentary resolution recognizing an Armenian “genocide” during World War I, Prime Minister Binali Yildirim said Friday.

“We will look at the background of the resolution and give the necessary response,” he said from Ankara’s Esenboga Airport before departing for Azerbaijan.

“Turkey and Germany are very important allied countries. Nobody should expect that our relations with Germany to get worse completely and suddenly due to such resolutions.”

Thursday’s non-binding resolution in the Bundestag accuses the Ottoman government of conducting “systematic genocide” against Armenians and other Christian minorities in 1915.

Yildirim drew attention to the killing of Turkish diplomats by Armenian terrorists from the 1970s to 1990s and said Armenia still supported terrorist groups.

The vote was widely condemned in Turkey, with three parliamentary parties issuing a joint statement.

The events of 1915 saw some of the Ottoman Empire’s Armenian population side with invading Russian forces, resulting in numerous deaths in the subsequent fighting and relocation of Armenians.

Turkey accepts that many died on both sides but says this did not amount to genocide and has repeatedly called for the creation of an international commission to resolve the issue.