TURKEY withdrew its ambassador to Germany yesterday after MPs voted to recognise World War I massacres of Armenians as genocide.

The motion, proposed by Chancellor Angela Merkel’s coalition and the opposition Greens, passed with support of all parties in the German parliament, with only one vote against and one abstention.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said he was recalling Ankara’s ambassador to Berlin for consultations as a “first step,” warning: “This decision will seriously impact Turkish-German relations.”

He said his government would consider further steps in response to the vote.

Turkey’s Foreign Ministry also summoned the German charge d’affaires in Ankara to protest at the vote, as the ambassador was away.

Newly appointed Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim called the German decision a “historic error.”

Mr Yildirim said Turkish people take pride in in their past and that “there is no event in our past that would cause us to bow down our heads in embarrassment.”

However, Armenia’s foreign minister welcomed the vote.

An estimated 1.5 million ethnic Armenians died in the massacres carried out by the Turkish Ottoman empire in 1915.

The motion stressed that, while Germany is aware of the “uniqueness” of the nazi Holocaust, it “regrets the inglorious role” of Germany, the Ottoman Turks’ main military ally at the time of the Armenians’ killings, which failed to stop the “crime against humanity.”

It also urges the German government to “encourage” Turkey to “deal openly with the expulsions and massacres” in order to “lay the necessary foundation stone for a reconciliation with the Armenian people.”