BERLIN, June 16: Germany’s parliament on Thursday condemned Turkey for what it called the mass killing of Armenians by Turks 90 years ago, sparking an angry protest from Ankara. 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 the killing.

The resolution stopped short of calling the killings genocide, a term Turkey rejects, but looks sure to test relations between Ankara and Berlin, until now a key supporter of Turkey’s EU aspirations.

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.

Turkey denies the claims that 1.5 million Armenians were slaughtered in a systematic genocide between 1915 and 1923 as the multi-ethnic Ottoman Empire collapsed.

It accepts that hundreds of thousands of Armenians were killed, but says even more Turks died in a partisan conflict in which many Armenians backed invading Russian troops.

Turkey is worried that it will come under mounting pressure to recognize the killings as ‘genocide’ after it starts EU entry talks in October.

“This resolution is regretful and we strongly condemn it,” said the Turkish foreign ministry in a statement.

President Jacques Chirac of France, home to Europe’s largest Armenian diaspora, has said failure by Turkey to recognize the genocide could harm the country’s EU bid.

Several European nations, including France, Poland and Greece, have passed resolutions recognizing the killings as genocide.

Ankara’s foreign ministry described the resolution as one-sided and ‘provocative’ and said it would hurt Turks’ feelings. It said German lawmakers had been motivated by domestic politics and had ignored repeated warnings of the harm the resolution would do to ties.—Reuters