TURKEY’S ERDOGAN SAYS EXPELLING MINORITIES "FASCIST"

WorldBulletin.net
May 25 2009
Turkey

Erdogan said over the weekend that state policies that led to the
expulsion of tens of thousands of ethnic Greeks in the last century
were "fascist".

Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan’s criticism of the 20th Century
expulsion of ethnic Greeks from Turkey points to a new attempt to
deal with the country’s troubled past, newspapers said on Monday.

Erdogan said over the weekend that state policies that led to the
expulsion of tens of thousands of ethnic Greeks in the last century
were "fascist".

"For years those of different identities have been kicked out of
our country … This was not done with common sense. This was done
with a fascist approach," Erdogan said on Saturday during a speech
in northwestern Turkey.

The comments were the first of its kind by a prime minister.

"For the first time you have a prime minister who wants to admit that
mistakes were made in the treatment of religious minorities. This is
historic," said Sami Kohen, a commentator at liberal daily newspaper
Milliyet.

"But whether this rhetoric will be followed with deeds, this remains to
be seen. In particular the Greeks, they have real problems," he said.

Other mainstream newspapers made similar comments.

It was unclear though whether Erdogan was also referring to the
population exchange of 1923 when more than 1.5 million ethnic Greeks
were expelled from Turkey to Greece and more than 500,000 mainly
Turks were driven from Greece in the aftermath of a war between the
two neighbours.