TURKEY THREATENS TO EXPEL 100,000 ARMENIANS

Novinite
March 17 2010
Bulgaria

"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," Erdogan said. Photo by EPA/BGNES

Turkey’s Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has threatened to expel
from his country some 100,000 illegal immigrants from Armenia.

The statement came after a US committee and Sweden recently approved
resolutions to brand the 1915 killing of Armenians in the Ottoman
Empire as genocide.

Asked about the votes in an interview with the BBC Turkish service that
was broadcast late Tuesday, Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan said:

"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.

Prime Minister Tigran Sarkisian said such statements "do not contribute
to the improvement of relations."

"I think it’s a violation of human rights," Armenian Diaspora Minister
Hranush Hakobian told RFE/RL’s Armenian Service. "No one has the right
to force anyone to choose a place for living. This is an absolute
human rights violation.

"And secondly," Hakobian continued, "I think this is yet another
statement that we are accustomed to hearing, a groundless statement.

The Armenian diaspora did, does, and will continue to struggle for
[publicizing] the genocide, including in the Republic of Armenia."