Authorities have indicted 33 people in an alleged secularist plot to destabilize Turkey and overthrow the government.

The Turkish government acknowledges that homes in eastern areas prone to earthquakes are not resilient to jolts like the magnitude 6 temblor that toppled houses and killed 51 people this week.

A strong earthquake, with a preliminary magnitude of 6, hit eastern Turkey on Monday, killing 51 people and knocking down houses in at least six small villages, an official said.

Turkey's foreign minister is warning of a breakdown in ties with the US after a congressional committee approved a resolution branding the World War I-era killing of Armenians genocide.

President Barack Obama is in a bind as a congressional panel prepares to vote next week on a resolution that would recognize as genocide the World War I-era killings of Armenians by Ottoman Turks.