Turkey to press on with Armenia peace despite vote

5 March 2010, 12:36

(Kazan, March 5, Tatar-inform). Turkey said it was determined to press ahead with efforts to normalize ties with Armenia despite a U.S. congressional panel vote terming as genocide the 1915 mass killings of Armenians by Ottoman Turks, Reuters informs.

"We are determined to press ahead with normalization of relations with Armenia," Turkey's Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu told a news conference. However, he said parliamentary ratification of peace accords with Armenia were at risk.

The U.S. House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Committee on Thursday narrowly voted to approve the nonbinding resolution, which calls on President Barack Obama to ensure U.S. policy formally refers to the killings as genocide. Turkey strongly denies the killings amounted to genocide.

*Sh