ERDOGAN NAMES EXPELLING OF MINORITIES FASCIST ACTIONS

/PanARMENIAN.Net/
25.05.2009 13:16 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdohan’s recent speech
on the historical events of expelling ethnic identities out of Turkey,
which he defined as a fascist act, is seen as a significant step by
some commentators. However, the community members want to see action.

It was fascistic to expel ethnic identities out of the country,
Turkey’s prime minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said at the annual
congress of the Justice and Development Party held in the western
province of Duzce.

According to the Hurriyet Daily News Turkish news paper, Erdogan’s
speech on Saturday was a historic one, as it was the first time a
high official accepted that there have been unlawful and undemocratic
practices against minorities in the past.

Erdogan’s speech is seen as a reference to the Sept. 6 and 7 events
in Istanbul in 1955 when many Greek shops and houses were pillaged by
crowds after false news reported that Turkey’s founder Mustafa Kemal
Ataturk’s house in the Thessaloniki neighborhood of Greece was burnt
down. After the pogrom, many Greek people who were born and lived in
Istanbul had to leave the city.

Kezban Hatemi, a lawyer, told the Hurriyet Daily News & Economic Review
that the country lost its glamour after the events of Sept. 6 and 7
adding: "The prime minister’s speech reveals that they [the government]
are showing an effort in removing the obstacles in front of democracy."

Words alone do not solve the current problems the communities
face in Turkey, according to Mihail Vasiliadis, editor-in-chief of
the Apoyevmatini, a Greek-language Istanbul newspaper. . "I have
heard things like that before and have gotten excited, but now the
continuation of those speeches should come," said Vasiliadis.

Cengiz Aktar, a columnist at the Hurriyet Daily News & Economic Review,
said it was important to mention the discrimination and assimilation
committed against ethnic identities, especially during the first eras
of the Turkish Republic. "However, even the laws to protect the ethnic
identities are not applied in reality.

Meanwhile, opposition parties reacted to Erdogan’s speech. Onur Oymen,
vice president of the main opposition Republican People’s Party,
or CHP, said associating Turkey’s history with terms like fascism
through hearsay information is not right.