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Erdogan blasts German MPs for genocide vote

Istanbul - He said that such people with "tainted blood" include "terrorists" and their supporters, in reference to the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK).

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has accused German lawmakers of Turkish origin in the German parliament of having "tainted blood" after they backed a resolution recognising massacres of Armenians in the Ottoman Empire as genocide.
Eleven German MPs with Turkish roots, led by the co-chairman of The Greens Cem Ozdemir, backed the resolution which has caused acrimonious exchanges between Ankara and Berlin.
"Do occasionally some people that have tainted blood turn up? Of course they do. But our nation gives them the lesson they deserve," Erdogan said in a speech late on Wednesday.
He said that such people with "tainted blood" include "terrorists" and their supporters, in reference to the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK).
"And, sometimes they are members of parliament in Germany that accuse their own country of genocide," he said, according to the text of the speech on the presidential website.
Erdogan, who shortly afterwards left on a trip to the United States to attend the funeral of boxer and civil rights campaigner Mohammed Ali, emphasised that his comments were not to be understood in a biological or racial way.
"In our culture, saying someone has 'tainted blood' is a reference to their character. It means someone that wrongs his own people and insists on engaging in bad deeds," he added.