Oct. 11 (Bloomberg) -- Turkey recalled its ambassador to the U.S. today after a congressional panel voted to call the slaughter of Armenians by Ottoman Turks a genocide.

Turkey's government instructed Ambassador Nabi Sensoy to return home for consultations as soon as possible, a Foreign Ministry official said by telephone from Ankara. The official, who declined to be identified, said it isn't clear when Sensoy might return to Washington.

The Turkish government warned that the vote threatens its strategic partnership with the U.S. Turkey, the only Muslim member of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, is home to an air base the U.S. has used as a re-supply hub for missions in Iraq and Afghanistan. The country also is one of the few Muslim nations to have close ties with Israel as well as Arab countries.

National Security Council spokesman Gordon Johndroe said the U.S. ``will continue to work to maintain strong U.S.-Turkish relations ``and will look forward'' to Sensoy's ``quick return.''

The Bush administration opposes the House resolution on Armenia ``because of the grave harm it could bring to the national security of the United States,'' Johndroe said in a statement e-mailed to reporters.

The nonbinding resolution was approved yesterday by the House Foreign Affairs Committee by a 27-21 margin.

U.S. officials called their Turkish counterparts after the vote to stress that the administration would do all it could to block the bill's passage by the full House of Representatives.

`Point Man'

Bulent Aliriza, director of the Turkey project at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, said the envoy's recall ``underlines the seriousness of the current crisis and the desire of the Turkish government to involve their point man in Washington in the measures they are now examining.''

Anger over the resolution makes it more likely that Turkey will proceed on an energy agreement with Iran over U.S. objections, said Aliriza, a former diplomat in the U.S. who represented Turkish Cypriots. American officials are pressing other countries to tighten sanctions against Iran over alleged nuclear-weapons development.

Turkey also might be more inclined to go ahead with planning for incursions into northern Iraq to pursue Kurdish rebels believed to be using the area as a base for cross-border attacks, Aliriza said in a telephone interview today.

``Clearly, one way to respond to the Armenian resolution is to disregard the U.S. admonitions to stay out,'' he said.

`Endanger Relations'

The Turkish government said in a statement on the Foreign Ministry Web site that the resolution ``will not only endanger relations with a friendly and allied nation but will also jeopardize a strategic partnership that has been cultivated for generations.''

The resolution calls on President George W. Bush to ``accurately characterize the systematic and deliberate annihilation'' of Armenians as a genocide in his annual message commemorating the killings.

U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi today stressed her intention to bring the measure to the floor before the legislature completes its work for the year.

``As long as there is genocide, there is a need to speak out against it,'' Pelosi told reporters gathered in her office before Sensoy's recall. Nadeam Elshami, a spokesman for Pelosi, said later that the recall of the ambassador doesn't change Democrats' plans.

``The House plans to move ahead with a vote on the legislation in upcoming weeks,'' Elshami said.

Armenian-American Support

The resolution has been strongly supported by Armenian- American groups.

Armenians say 1.5 million of their brethren were slaughtered by Ottoman Turks around the time of World War I in a systematic genocide. Turkey says that Armenians and Turks were killed in ethnic clashes during the collapse of the Ottoman Empire after Armenian groups sided with Russia in World War I.

Armenian President Robert Kocharian told a press conference in Brussels today that he hoped ``this process will lead to the full recognition by the U.S. of the fact of the Armenian genocide.''

``If some countries fail to recognize this formally at state level, it's due to the fact that they don't want to create difficulties in their relations with Turkey,'' Kocharian said.

U.S. Undersecretary of State for Political Affairs Nicholas Burns called Sensoy, who attended the House committee hearing, after the vote. U.S. ambassador to Turkey Ross Wilson also spoke to an official from the Turkish Foreign Ministry.

Administration's `Regret'

Both expressed the administration's ``regret'' that the committee approved the measure and pledged to ``work to prevent it from passing in the full House,'' State Department spokesman Tom Casey told reporters in Washington. U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice also planned to call Turkish officials today.

Bush yesterday said the resolution ``is not the right response to these mass killings.'' U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates said it threatens U.S. security interests.

``Access would be very much at risk if this resolution passes,'' Gates told reporters in Washington.

To contact the reporter on this story: Louis Meixler in Istanbul at lmeixler@bloomberg.net

Last Updated: October 11, 2007 18:10 EDT