US-Turkey ties under threat over Armenia killings row

Turkey said on Tuesday it will not send its ambassador back to Washington until it gets a "clear sign" on the fate of a US resolution branding the 1915-era killings of Armenians by Turkish forces as "genocide".  NATO member Turkey, a pivotal US ally, was infuriated and recalled its envoy after a US House panel last week approved the non-binding measure condemning the killings.  Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan, speaking to reporters in Saudi Arabia off-camera, was quoted by state-news agency Anatolian as saying the ambassador will not be going back until there is a "clear sign" on the outcome of the situation regarding the Armenian bill. He did not elaborate. Erdogan, on an official visit where he met Saudi leaders in Riyadh, has said the resolution will damage US-Turkish ties, although the Obama administration has vowed to stop it from going further in Congress. Turkey, a secular Muslim democracy that has applied for membership of the European Union, is crucial to US interests in Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan and the Middle East. The issue of the Armenian massacres is deeply sensitive in Turkey. Turkey accepts that many Christian Armenians were killed by Ottoman Turks but vehemently denies that up to 1.5 million died and that it amounted to genocide -- a term employed by many Western historians and some foreign parliaments.