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Ankara summons Dutch envoy over Armenian 'genocide' vote

Turkey summoned the Dutch charge d'affaires Friday, a day after lawmakers in the Netherlands voted to recognise the early 1900s massacre of Armenians under the Ottoman Empire as "genocide".

DPA WORLD
Published February 23,2018
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The top Dutch diplomat in Ankara was summoned to the Turkish Foreign Ministry Friday, a day after the Dutch parliament voted to recognize the mass killing of Armenians during World War I as genocide, state-run news agency Anadolu reported.

Turkey "fiercely" condemned the resolution - which received overwhelming support, with only three lawmakers voting against - saying it has "no legal binding character or validity."

The Dutch government said it would continue to discuss "the question of the Armenian genocide" but was not planning official recognition.

Turkey vehemently rejects any assertion that the killing of up to 1.5 million Armenians at the hands of the Ottoman Empire constitutes genocide. However, Turkey, the Ottoman Empire's successor state, accepts that many Armenians were killed during the war.

This is the second time in a week that the top Dutch envoy to Ankara has been summoned. He was called into the ministry last week too, as it became clear Dutch lawmakers planned to move ahead with the recognition.

Relations between the Netherlands and Turkey are rocky. The two NATO allies and key trading partners do not have ambassadors posted to each other's capitals.

The Dutch government banned Turkish politicians from entering the country to conduct election rallies aimed at Turkish expatriates in the Netherlands in March last year, ahead of the constitutional amendment referendum.