ANKARA: Turkey's relations with Germany will be harmed if the parliament in Berlin votes to describe the killings of Armenians last century as genocide, the Turkish prime minister said Wednesday.
Binali Yildirim said, however, that Turkey wouldn't nix a key deal with the European Union on curbing migrant flows to Europe over the genocide issue.
Historians estimate that up to 1.5 million Armenians were killed by Ottoman Turks around the time of World War I, an event viewed by many scholars as the first genocide of the 20th century.
Turkey denies that the killings that started in 1915 were genocide and contends that those who died were victims of civil war and unrest. Turkey also insists the death toll has been inflated.
Germany's parliament will hold a vote on a motion describing the deaths as genocide on Thursday.
"Of course relations with Germany will be harmed, there is no doubt about it," Yildirim said.
"Turkey is not a country that engages in blackmail, threats, and makes counter-plans," Yildirim said in response to a question on how the German resolution would affect the Turkey-EU deal. "There can be no question of disregarding deals if this resolution is passed."
The prime minister, who took office last week, also called the planned vote in German parliament "nonsense" and said the deaths were "ordinary" events occurring under war conditions.
"The events were one of (those) ordinary events that can take place in any community, in any country and which occurred in 1915, within the conditions of World War I," Yildirim said.
He said the German parliament should "not turn a deaf ear to the voice" of around 3 million ethnic Turks living in Germany.
"God willing, common sense will prevail and such a disturbing decision won't emerge," Yildirim said.
AP
