Turkey to push peace with Armenia despite U.S. vote

(Reuters) - Turkey said Friday it would push on with efforts to normalize ties with Armenia despite a U.S. congressional panel vote labeling as genocide the mass killing of Armenians by Ottoman Turks in 1915.

Turkish leaders reacted with fury over the approval on Thursday of the non-binding resolution by the U.S. House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Committee, although it was unclear whether the bill would be considered by the full House.

President Abdullah Gul, whose visit to Armenia in 2008 led to the peace initiative, said the U.S. vote would hurt efforts to bring peace and stability to the South Caucasus, a volatile region with pipelines taking oil and gas to the West.

Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said the U.S. action had jeopardized chances of Turkey's parliament ratifying peace accords with Armenia, but that the government would push on with efforts to resolve disputes with its old foe.

"We are determined to press ahead with normalization of relations with Armenia," Davutoglu told a news conference hours after Turkey recalled its ambassador from Washington.

DISTRACTION

Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan warned of possible damage to relations with the United States, which could undermine President Barack Obama's goal of building a "strategic partnership" with Turkey, a Muslim, yet secular country.

Muslim Turkey accepts that many Christian Armenians were killed by Ottoman Turks but denies that up to 1.5 million died and that it amounted to genocide -- a term employed by many Western historians and some foreign parliaments.

The outcry, in a country filled with national pride, could prove a distraction from political crises brewing at home following the detention of dozens of military officers suspected of planning a coup in 2003.

Erdogan's Islamic-leaning government is also at odds with the judiciary, which alongside the military is a stronghold of Turkey's old guard of conservative, nationalist secularists.

U.S. President Barack Obama's administration had made a vain, last-gasp appeal to the panel to drop the resolution, concerned it would hurt ties with a NATO ally that is important for U.S. interests in Iran, Afghanistan and the Middle East.

Diplomatic moves by European Union candidate Turkey to boost ties with Muslim neighbors such as Iran or Syria have raised concerns that Turkey is shifting away from its traditional Western-aligned foreign policy.

U.S.-Turkish ties were already being tested as Washington sought to convince Ankara to back sanctions against Iran.

Having met resistance to its bid for membership of the European Union during the past year, Turks could feel more alienated from the West following the U.S. vote.

Asked if Turkey was considering retaliatory steps against the United States or U.S. policy in areas such as Afghanistan, Davutoglu said it was too early to talk about specific measures.

FLASHPOINT

The fallout from the vote could reverberate around the fractious nations of the South Causcasus.

Turkey and Armenia last year signed a historic deal to open their border, but the protocols have still to be ratified by parliaments in Ankara and Yerevan.

The deal, seen as crucial to obtaining long term peace in the region, has irked Azerbaijan, a friend of Turkey and foe of Christian Armenia.

Late last month Azerbaijan warned that the risk of a conflict over the breakaway region of Nagorno-Karabakh was rising and that a "great war" in the South Caucasus was inevitable if Armenian forces did not withdraw.

Ethnic Armenians in Nagorno-Karabakh, backed by Armenia, threw off Azeri rule in fighting that broke out as the Soviet Union headed toward collapse in 1991. An estimated 30,000 people perished before a ceasefire was agreed in 1994.