The fight over what to officially call the Armenian genocide after WW1 is heating up, with Turkey's Prime Minister Recep Erdogan threatening to kick out 100,000 Armenians currently living in the country.

Turkey recalled its ambassador to Washington last month over the House Foreign Affairs Committee's decision to label the disputed killings as genocide. Erdogan yesterday told BBC's Turkish service:

"There are currently 170,000 Armenians living in our country. Only 70,000 of them are Turkish citizens, but we are tolerating the remaining 100,000. If necessary, I may have to tell these 100,000 to go back to their country because they are not my citizens. I don't have to keep them in my country."

Nobel Prize winning Turkish author Orhan Pamuk nearly went to jail for "insulting Turkishness" by making statements about the Armenian genocide. The charges were dropped after international outcry and pressure from the EU forced Turkey's hand.

[Image via Getty]