Turkey says any U.S. recognition of Armenian 'genocide' would further harm ties

FILE PHOTO: Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu looks on during a joint statement with High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Josep Borrell (not pictured), ahead of a meeting at the EEAS in Brussels, Belgium, January 21, 2021. Stephanie Lecocq/Pool via REUTERS

ANKARA (Reuters) -Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said on Tuesday that any move by U.S. President Joe Biden to recognise the 1915 mass killings of Armenians by the Ottoman Empire as a genocide will further harm already strained ties between the NATO allies.

Turkey accepts that many Armenians living in the Ottoman Empire were killed in clashes with Ottoman forces during World War One, but contests the figures and denies that the killings were systematically orchestrated and constitute a genocide.