Turkish Cabinet to discuss German 'genocide' motion

SARAJEVO, Bosnia-Herzegovina (AA) - Turkey’s Cabinet will discuss the German parliament’s decision to label the deaths of Ottoman Armenians in 1915 as “genocide”, Deputy Prime Minister Numan Kurtulmus said Sunday.

Ministers are expected to meet Monday - the first since Thursday’s Bundestag resolution.

“The German parliament’s decision is meaningless for us,” Kurtulmus said on a visit to Turkey’s embassy in Sarajevo. “However, Turkey’s Cabinet will discuss it even so.”

He added: “We even cannot understand why the German parliament accepted this kind of empty and pointless decision.”

The motion accuses the Ottoman government of carrying out “systematic genocide” against Armenians and other Christian minorities in 1915.

Turkey denies the deaths of Armenians amounted to genocide but has acknowledged there were casualties on both sides after some Armenians rose up in support of invading Russian forces. It has repeatedly called for the creation of an international commission to resolve the issue.