TURKEY THREATENS TO EXPEL THOUSANDS OF ARMENIANS
Deutsche Welle
,,5365338 ,00.html
March 18 2010
Germany
Following votes in the US and Sweden branding the killing of Armenians
by Ottoman Turks in World War One as genocide, Turkey’s prime minister
has lashed out at the country’s 100,000 illegal Armenian immigrants.
Turkey’s Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan threatened the future of
thousands of Armenian illegal immigrants currently living in Turkey
on Tuesday.
"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," Erdogan said while speaking on the BBC Turkish
service on Tuesday.
"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," he added.
Erdogan’s comments add to ongoing diplomatic tensions between Turkey
and Armenia, Sweden and the United States. Earlier this month, Turkey
recalled its ambassadors to Washington and Stockholm after both the
United States and Sweden passed votes labeling the World War One era
killings of Armenians by Ottoman Turks as genocide.
A century of unrest
Erdogan said on Tuesday that the US and Swedish moves could have a
negative impact on the ongoing attempts at reconciliation with Armenia,
after a century of hostility.
His comments were met with a stern reaction from his counterpart
in Armenia.
"This kind of statement does not help improve relations between the
two states," Prime Minister Tigran Sarksyan said.
The comments meant "the events of 1915 immediately return to our
memory," he added.
Muslim Turkey and Christian Armenia signed historic accords in October
last year to establish diplomatic ties and open their border. However,
that deal has not been finalized by the respective parliaments.
The issue of the Armenian massacres is deeply sensitive in Turkey,
which accepts that many Christian Armenians were killed by Ottoman
Turks but vehemently denies that up to 1.5 million died and that it
amounted to genocide – a term employed by many Western historians
and some foreign parliaments.