Protest at US Bill branding Turkish past as 'genocidal'

Turks took to the streets today in protest at an American decision to continue with a bill which describes the 90-year-old mass killings of Armenians as genocide.

Despite intense lobbying by Turkish officials and opposition by President Bush, the House Foreign Affairs Committee passed the bill by a 27-21 vote.

Mr Bush had warned that it could harm US-Turkish relations, which are already tense with Turkey considering a military offensive into Iraq against Kurdish rebels. The US fears that could destabilise one of the few relatively peaceful areas in the country.

At the centre of the issue is a claim that up to 1.5 million Armenians were killed in a systematic genocide between 1915-17, before modern Turkey was born in 1923.

Turkey says the killings occurred at a time of civil unrest as the Ottoman Empire was falling apart, and that the numbers are inflated.

"Unfortunately, some politicians in the US have once again sacrificed important matters to petty domestic politics despite all calls to common sense," Turkey's President Gul said after the US vote.

Mr Bush had urged Congress to reject the legislation, and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Defence Secretary Robert Gates also expressed concern.

Passing the measure "at this time would be very problematic for everything we are trying to do in the Middle East," Ms Rice said hours before the vote.

The US Embassy in Ankara meanwhile urged Americans to be alert for possible violence after the vote.

US Ambassador Ross Wilson said he regretted the committee's decision, and said he hoped it would not be passed by the House.