"Armenian genocide" measure strains Turkish-Swedish relations

12/03/2010

STOCKHOLM, Sweden -- Turkey recalled its ambassador to Sweden after lawmakers there approved a resolution describing as genocide the World War I-era killings of hundreds of thousands of Armenians by the Ottoman Empire. The vote in the Swedish parliament Thursday (March 11th) was 131-130, the same one-vote margin as in a US congressional committee last week. As he did after the US House committee vote on a similar resolution, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan criticised the Swedish resolution, describing it as "based upon major errors and without foundation". He also cancelled a planned trip to Stockholm next week. Swedish Prime Minister Carl Bildt described Thursday's vote as a "mistake" and insisted it would not change Stockholm's longstanding support of Turkey's EU bid. (Milliyet, Hurriyet, Sabah, Zaman - 12/03/10; BBC, AP - 11/03/10)