Sofia _ Bulgaria's Turks criticise a city council for recognising the First World War massacres of Turkey's Armenians as 'genocide.'

Twenty-five of the 32 municipal councillors in Bulgaria's northeast city of Dobrich, voted in favour of the move, one voted against while five abstained.

Before voting, the regional leader of the ethnic Turkish Movement for Rights and Freedoms, Denis Noman called for the issue to be removed from the agenda because it was a matter of interstate relations, not for local government.

Turkey strongly denies Armenian claims, backed by many Western historians that the massacres of Armenians by Ottoman Turks during the First World War amounted to systematic genocide. Ankara argues they were war casualties just like many Turks were.

Bulgaria's national government has not officially recognised the massacres as genocide but Dobrich has become the country's tenth municipality to adopt such a resolution.

Only 40,000 ethnic Armenians live in Bulgaria but Sofia points out that it was among the first country to offer asylum to the Armenian families fleeing Ottoman persecution.

Bulgaria's ethnic Turks claim the recognition move is another bid to antagonise relations.

On Tuesday, influential Turk leaders agreed to set up a Federation of Turkish-Islamic Associations to call for better political representation of their ethnic community.

The new body was promoted by Menderes Kungyun, a businessman from the southern city of Kardzhali and a leader of the National Turkish Union, established in 2006.

Kungyun recently filed a discrimination suit at the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg. He claims Bulgaria's Turks, who make up nearly 10% of the population, should be recognised as an official minority, their language given official status and restrictions on forming ethnically-based political parties lifted.