Germany's parliament condemned on Thursday the mass killing of Armenians by Turkey 90 years ago in a move likely to lead to tension between Ankara and Berlin, a key supporter of Turkey's bid for EU membership. In a vote shortly after Germany's government and opposition clashed over whether Turkey should join the European Union, all main parties in the Bundestag joined forces to deplore what many historians say amounted to genocide.
The resolution stopped short of calling the killings genocide, a term Turkey rejects, but it seems likely to anger Ankara nonetheless.
Turkish Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul told German journalists this week that the resolution amounted to "a huge injustice towards Turkey and Turks living in Germany", the German newspaper Rheinische Post reported on Thursday.
Around 2 million Turks live in Germany. A Berlin police spokesman said a demonstration was planned in front of the Armenian embassy in Berlin on Saturday, but denied a member of parliament's claim that up to 50,000 Turks could take part.
The resolution urged Turkey to set up an independent committee of Turkish, Armenian and international historians to document what happened and to hold a conference in Istanbul - postponed last month - to examine the issue.
It also condemned the German government of the time for failing to try to stop the killings despite "many pieces of information about the organised expulsion and extermination of Armenians".
Germany was an ally of the Ottoman Empire during World War One, when the massacres took place.
"The German parliament is well aware from its own experience how hard it is for all peoples to deal with the dark side of their past," the resolution said in a reference to Germany's own Nazi regime and its murder of millions of Jews.
"It is convinced however that an honest appraisal of history is necessary and the most important basis for reconciliation."
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