WE ARE NOT HOSTAGES BUT CITIZENS OF THIS COUNTRY

Turkish Daily News
Turkish Press Yesterday
Sept 27 2006

Milliyet yesterday reported that a group of Turkish citizens of Greek
and Armenian origin condemned the Justice and Development Party (AKP)
government for withdrawing a law proposal on returning the property of
non-Muslim associations and the main opposition Republican People’s
Party (CHP) for demanding that the principle of "reciprocity" be
applied for Turkish minorities in other countries.

A group of approximately 100 Turkish citizens of Armenian and
Greek ethnicity issued a statement reading, "We equally condemn the
government, which openly admits that it has taken up our rights as
citizens only as a requirement of the European Union accession process,
and the opposition, which holds the view that this society’s diversity
should be leveled by assimilating minorities. We would like to tell
them [the opposition] that this mentality, which demands "reciprocity,"
is a confession that they see us as hostages; the system they envision
is not that of a democratic republic. We invite both the government
and the opposition to absorb the values of a democratic republic and
to act accordingly."