Turkey signaled on Saturday that it may use countermeasures against the U.S. if a controversial bill condemning as genocide the World War I killings of Armenians by Turks was passed.
The Foreign Affairs Committee of the U.S. House of Representatives voted on Thursday 23-22 in support of the resolution following almost six hours of heated debates.
Although not yet adopted, the bill has already become a diplomatic flashpoint between Washington and Ankara.
It will now go before the full House, although no date has been set for the vote.
Ankara condemned the bill and recalled its newly appointed ambassador to the United States, Namik Tan, for consultations.
"We condemn this bill that blames the Turkish nation for a crime it did not commit. Our Washington ambassador was invited to Ankara tonight for consultations," Turkey's Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan said in a statement posted on his office's website.
President Abdullah Gul said Turkey would "not be responsible for the negative results of this vote," adding that it harmed "peace and stability in South Caucasus, and establishment of constant friendship between the peoples."
According to the Turkish newspaper Sabah, among the measures to be discussed at a governmental meeting on Monday is postponing for the second time Trade Minister Zafer Caglayan's visit to the United States, scheduled for March 19.
Ankara hinted that Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan may not attend the Global Nuclear Security Summit, which will be held on April 11-14 in Washington.
Economic measures include determining "new alternatives" in trade between Turkey and the United States. In the energy sphere, Ankara will favor closer ties with Moscow.
On the military front, the decision on the bilateral cooperation, especially in Afghanistan, will be put on hold, but use of Turkey's air space and restriction of activities in its military bases "are on the table." Ankara expects that collaborative efforts between Western powers and Iran will also be weighed down.
On Friday, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said the Obama administration would "work very hard" to ensure that the controversial bill would not reach the full House floor.
Turkey, which has always refused to recognize the killings of an estimated 1.5 million Armenians at the end of the Ottoman period in 1915 as an act of genocide, earlier warned Washington that this move could jeopardize U.S-Turkish cooperation and set back the talks aimed at opening the border between Turkey and Armenia, which has been closed since 1993 on Ankara's initiative.
A similar vote in the committee was approved by a wider margin in 2007, but the U.S. Bush administration, anxious to retain Turkish cooperation in Iraq, scuttled a full House vote.
ANKARA, March 6 (RIA Novosti)
