The Strasbourg assembly resolution came just a week after the European Union outlined to Turkey political and economic changes it must make for membership talks to begin. Awaited with some trepidation by diplomats in Ankara, it seems likely to complicate at the outset what may in any case be a long and fraught journey toward the goal of membership for Turkey. The motion, passed by 234 to 213, does not oblige European Union member states to take any action. But that is unlikely to ease Turkish anger over a highly emotive issue.
Turkey denies genocide accusations.
It argues that where killings occurred in the chaos of the collapse of the Ottoman Empire, they were part of general partisan fighting and that all sides suffered. The resolution, part of a series of European Parliament assessments of Turkish progress toward EU membership, also called for the withdrawal of Turkish troops from northern Cyprus. It was dropped only when President Clinton said its passage would damage U.S. security interests. The French parliament is also considering such a measure. Turkey had threatened commercial boycotts and alluded to measures that could have disrupted U.S. air operations over northern Iraq which use bases in Turkey.