A U.S. congressional panel passed a resolution March 4 to label as "genocide" the deaths of up to 1.5 million Armenians in Turkey, in 1915. The Foreign Affairs Committee resolution now will be sent to the full House of Representatives, which has examined the genocide question before but never passed a resolution of this type. The issue is highly politicized, and Turkey's foreign ministry immediately condemned the U.S. lawmakers' vote — warning that it would damage U.S.-Turkish relations and ongoing efforts to normalize Ankara's ties with Armenia. The ministry also recalled the Turkish ambassador to the United States, Namik Tan, for talks in Ankara.
