Turkey PM's Armenian aide steps down amid genocide row

The Turkish government on Thursday said a Turkish-Armenian advisor to Prime Minister Ahmet Davutogou had "retired", days after he caused a furore within the ruling party for describing the mass killings of Armenians during the Ottoman Empire as genocide.

The government denied any link between the departure of Etyen Mahcupyan and the looming 100th anniversary on April 24 of the start of the 1915 killings of Armenians, which Yerevan regards as genocide.

Mahcupyan, 65, "has retired on the grounds of age," a Turkish government official, who asked not to be named, told AFP, noting this was the age limit for all Turkish civil servants.

But Mahcupyan, who was appointed last year as senior advisor to Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu, infuriated some within the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) this week when he described the mass World War I killings of Armenians as a "genocide."

"If accepting that what happened in Bosnia and Africa were genocides, it is impossible not to call what happened to Armenians in 1915 genocide too," Mahcupyan said in an interview published this week.

Armenia and Armenians in the diaspora say 1.5 million of their forefathers were killed by Ottoman forces in a targeted campaign ordered by the military leadership of the Ottoman empire to eradicate the Armenian people from Anatolia in what is now eastern Turkey.

Turkey says hundreds of thousands of both Turks and Armenians lost their lives as Ottoman forces battled the Russian Empire for control of eastern Anatolia during World War I.

- 'Unsuitable remarks' -

As the anniversary has drawn near, Turkey has taken an increasingly defiant and combative line amid growing tensions over the characterisation of the tragedy.

Turkey's EU Affairs Minister Volkan Bozkir strongly rebuked Mahcupyan for speaking out on the issue, which remains taboo for many in Turkey.

"Naturally, those views were not suitable for a Turkish citizen. Maybe he will himself make a re-evaluation," Bozkir told a live television interview.

Mahcupyan rejected suggestions he had been fired, saying he stepped down as of March 9 -- on his 65th birthday.

"When it was March 9, I automatically remained outside the system due to age limit," he told the Hurriyet newspaper, saying he would continue to give unpaid advice.

The European Parliament on Wednesday urged Turkey to use the centenary to "recognise the Armenian genocide" and help promote reconciliation between the two peoples.

Erdogan, on an official visit to Kazakhstan, slammed the European Parliament resolution as "null and void" and said in an appeal to Armenians: "Let's leave history to historians... and build a new future."

Bozkir likened the European Parliament to a "circus" where anyone can present a proposal without any party discipline.

The foreign ministry meanwhile described the text of the parliament's resolution as "preposterous".

The use of the word "genocide" by Pope Francis on Sunday infuriated Ankara and prompted Davutoglu to accuse the pontiff of "blackmail" against Turkey.

The mufti of Ankara, Mefail Hizli, even suggested that the pope's statement would hasten the reopening of Istanbul's Hagia Sophia museum to Muslim worshipping.

The world-famous landmark was turned into a museum accessible to all by the secular founders of modern Turkey in the 1930s after serving as a church and a mosque.

In this week's interview, Mahcupyan said the Vatican had finally released a "100-year-old psychological burden," adding that what needed to be questioned was 100-year-old resistance to using the term.

In an interview with AFP in December, Mahcupyan had predicted 2015 would be a "tough year" because of the anniversary.

A small but prominent community of Turkish-Armenians remains in the country, mostly based in Istanbul.