TURKISH MINISTER SAYS HIS REMARKS ON MINORITIES MISUNDERSTOOD

Hurriyet
Nov 11 2008
Turkey

Turkish National Defense Minister Vecdi Gonul said on Tuesday
he was misunderstood when he questioned whether there would be
today’s nation-state if Greeks and Armenians continued to live in
Turkey. (UPDATED)

"If Greeks continued to live in the Aegean and Armenians continued
to live in many places in Turkey, I wonder whether there would be
today’s nation-state," Gonul said as he emphasized the importance of
last century’s population exchange between Turkey and Greece in his
speech at the Turkish embassy in Brussels.

"I don’t know how to tell you about the importance of this
exchange. But if you look at the old balances, the importance of this
would very clearly arise," he added.

Turkish media quoted Gonul on Tuesday as saying he had been
misunderstood. The defence ministry declined to comment.

The 1923 Exchange of Populations between Greece and Turkey involved
some two million people, most forcibly made refugees and de jure
denaturalized from homelands of centuries or millennia, in a treaty
promoted and overseen by the international community as part of the
Treaty of Lausanne.

The exchange took place between Turkish nationals of the Greek Orthodox
religion established in Turkish territory, and of Greek nationals of
the Muslim religion established in Greek territory.