A US congressional committee approved the resolution

The decision of a US Congress committee to label the mass killing of Armenians under the Ottoman Empire as genocide has provoked mixed reactions in the region.

While the Armenian press applauds the move, several Turkish commentators accuse the US politicians who voted in favour of the resolution of applying double standards - especially in view of the high death toll in Iraq since the US invasion.

Papers in Azerbaijan - a country that has long had uneasy relations with Armenia - see the resolution as a strategic error that will have an adverse effect on relations between the US and its traditional allies in the region. At least one Russian paper also warns of the possibility of an anti-American backlash.

It is, indeed, very good and very important that the key panel of the US Congress has finally called things by their real names and characterised the violence perpetrated by the Ottoman Empire against Armenians at the beginning of the 20th Century as genocide.

The adoption of Resolution 106 on the Armenian genocide by the US House Foreign Affairs Committee was a crucial battle that we won. But this is only one episode in many historical events that paved the way for breaking the wall of silence surrounding the recognition of the Armenian genocide.

One thing is clear from the historic debates held on Wednesday: neither of the two parties represented in the United States legislature has any doubt that the Armenian people were subjected to genocide in Ottoman Turkey in 1915-23.

It must be an irony of fate that the resolution came at the same time as the US admits that it is stuck in a quagmire and has caused the deaths of many innocent people in Iraq.

This resolution - coming as it does on top of US actions in Iraq, insensitivity over PKK terrorism and stepping aside in Cyprus - has irredeemably shaken the prestige of the US in the eyes of Turkish public.

This is a political attack against Turkey.

Despite public anger, the issue should not be evaluated emotionally, but at an angle that considers Turkey's wider interests ... Turkey still has the opportunity to play the card of her strategic importance.

This decision is a big mistake on the part of the US. Placing the "Armenian genocide" issue on the agenda will undermine US influence not only in Turkey and the Turkic world but also in the whole Islamic and Muslim world.

This decision creates problems for Turkey internationally and benefits Armenia in terms of propaganda and consequently runs against Azerbaijan's interests.

The resolution threatens not only Turkey's security but also that of Azerbaijan. This will have an adverse effect on both US-Turkish and US-Azerbaijani relations.

A huge scandal is breaking out in relations between the US and its strategic eastern ally, Turkey... In an attempt to make things lively for President Bush, the Democrats struck a powerful blow at US positions in the region. Now Ankara can deny the US access to its military base which plays a key role in operations in Iraq and Afghanistan; it may also start an operation against Kurd militants in the north of Iraq. Moreover, the region is facing a powerful wave of anti-American demonstrations.

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