TURKISH PM THREATENS ARMENIAN DEPORTATION AFTER GENOCIDE DECISION

SR International – Radio Sweden
tssidor/artikel.asp?ProgramID=2054&format=1&am p;artikel=3564946
March 17 2010

Turkish prime minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan threatened on Tuesday to
expel upwards of 100,000 Armenians living in Turkey. Reuters reports
that the comments came in response to recent Swedish and American
resolutions classifying the murder of more than a million Armenians
in 1915 by Ottoman Turks as genocide.

Speaking to the BBC’s Turkish service, Erdogan said on Tuesday night
that "there are currently 170,000 Armenians living in our country.

Only 70,000 of them are Turkish citizens, but we are tolerating the
remaining 100,000. If necessary, I may have to tell these 100,000 to
go back to their country because they are not my citizens. I don’t
have to keep them in my country."

But Turkish-Armenian groups say that the prime minister has made
similar threats before.

"We are not taking it as a serious threat," said Aris Nalci, an editor
at a Turkish-Armenian weekly.

Erdogan’s own political party played down his remarks as well. The
prime minister was "not talking about something that would happen today
or tomorrow," the AK Party foreign affairs spokesman told Reuters.

The interview comes after Erdogan spoke kindly of his "friend"
Swedish prime minister Fredrik Reinfeldt at a press conference in
London on Tuesday.

Erdogan said at a press conference that he was gladdened by Reinfeldt’s
Saturday phone call, during which the Swede expressed regret about the
"politicized" decision made by parliament. Reinfeldt also ensured
his Turkish counterpart that the Swedish people continue to think
very highly of the country.

Together with Foreign Minister Carl Bildt, Fredrik Reinfeldt has stated
publicly that his government doesn’t intend to make the parliament’s
decision a part of its foreign policy.

The opposition Social Democrats have since reported him to the
Committee on the Constitution, which will rule if Reinfeldt and Bildt
are required to adopt the genocide resolution as law.