Turkey Says Reconciliation With Armenia At Risk

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan

Turkey's prime minister says an Armenian court's reference to the mass killings of Armenians during World War I as "genocide" could harm efforts to end a century of enmity.

Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said today the court decision could harm the reconcilliation process if it "is not corrected."

Erdogan was referring to the January 12 approval by Armenia's Constitutional Court of an October agreement to heal ties and reopen shared borders between the two countries.

In it, the court referred to Armenia's declaration of independence, which calls for recognition of the 1915 killings of up to 1.5 million Armenians by Ottoman Turks as "genocide."

Turkey also wants Armenian troops withdrawn from Nagorno-Karabakh, an Armenian-occupied enclave in Azerbaijan.

compiled from agency reports