TURKEY THREATENS TO EXPEL 100,000 ARMENIANS OVER US ROW
by Damien McElroy, Foreign Affairs Correspondent
Daily Telegraph
s/europe/turkey/7465701/Turkey-threatens-to-expel- 100000-Armenians-over-genocide-row.html
5:52PM GMT 17 Mar 2010
UK
Turkey has threatened to expel 100,000 Armenians from the country in
response to the US branding the First World War killings of Armenians
by Ottoman Turks as "genocide".
Ottoman soldiers posing in front of Armenians they hung on a public
place, image taken in Alep in 1915 Photo: GETTY Recep Tayyip Erdogan,
the Turkish prime minister, said the position of the immigrants,
many of whom have lived there as refugees for a generation, was being
reviewed in the wake of the row.
Armenia claims more than 500,000 of its countrymen died in bitter
in-fighting as the Ottoman Empire disintegrated at the height of the
First World War.
Turkey concedes that tens of thousands died in ethnic fighting but
vehemently disputes accusations that massacres were systematically
planned.
Tensions with Armenia have recently escalated as a well-organised
worldwide campaign has persuaded the American Congress and Swedish
parliament to adopt resolutions condemning the incidents as "genocide".
An Armenian Genocide Remembrance Day Bill has also been put before
the House of Commons and Mr Erdogan has warned Gordon Brown that
relations would suffer if parliament passes it.
Turkish law already makes discussion of genocide an offence punishable
by imprisonment.
"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," said Mr Erdogan.
"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."
The suggestion has proved controversial in Turkey with Ahmed Davutoglu,
Turkey’s foreign minister, rejecting any calls to drive out Armenians.
Mr Davutoglu said the move would put Turkey in the "hot seat" as it
attempted to fend off charges of ingrained racial prejudice.
He said: "If we do it, will provoke other states that opposes
our policy to use the move as a bargaining chip. All newspapers
will publish photos of deported Armenians and it will be called
a nationalism."
Turkey has been dismayed by the campaign as it had been attempting
to establish normal diplomatic relations with the ex-Soviet state.
Mr Erdogan said its neighbour should distance itself from the overseas
community leading the lobbying.
He said: "Armenia has an important decision to make. It should free
itself from its attachment to the diaspora. Any country which cares
for Armenia, namely the US, France and Russia, should primarily help
Armenia to free itself from the influence of the diaspora."
But yesterday there was uproar in Armenai over the suggestion of
deportations. Hrayr Karapetyan, an Armenian MP, condemned Mr Erdogan’s
remarks as blackmail.
"The statement once again proves that there is an Armenian genocide
threat in present Turkey, thus world community should pressurise
Ankara to recognise [the] genocide," he said.
Turkey allows visa free access from much of the Caucuses and Central
Asia. As a result its cities are populated by a high number of
illegal immigrants.
The small community of Armenians who hold Turkish citizenship have
often borne the strain of the country’s political tensions.