Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has lashed out further after the German parliament decided overwhelmingly that the Ottoman Empire was responsible for genocide of Armenians.
Turkish administrations have consistently denied the 1915-1916 massacres amounted to genocide.
Erdogan has not only condemned last week’s vote in Germany but also accused the 11 German MPs with Turkish backgrounds of supporting terrorism carried out by the banned Kurdish Workers’ Party (PKK).
He went on to demand “blood tests” for the 11 to verify “what kind of Turks they are”.
He singled out German Greens party co-leader Cem Özdemir, one of the instigators of the resolution passed on June 2. Özdemir has received anonymous death threats and is now under police protection.
Chancellor Angela Merkel’s office hit back on Monday at a press conference.
"The Bundestag reached a sovereign decision. That must be respected," spokesman Steffen Seibert said.
He said that Germany also considers the PKK to be a terrorist group, but "to associate individual members of parliament with terrorism is utterly incomprehensible to us".
The blistering row comes at a time when the EU and Turkey are trying to work together to contain the flow of migrants into Europe.
Germany is home to more than four million people of Turkish descent, the country’s largest ethnic minority. Many were not in favour of the genocide vote, but have criticised Erdogan for the pressure his government is putting.
"We find death threats and demands for blood tests abhorrent," its chairman Gokay Sofuoglu told German news agency DPA.
"I think the era when people were defined by their blood ended in 1945.
“This is absolutely out of place."
