atens-to-expel-100000-armenians-over-us-vote/
Tur kish PM Threatens to Expel 100,000 Armenians Over US Vote
PM: Letting Armenians Stay a ‘Display of Our Peaceful Approach’
by Jason Ditz, March 17, 2010
In an interview yesterday with the BBC, Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip
Erdogan sought to underscore just how seriously he views a recent vote
by the US House Foreign Affairs Committee earlier this month, by
threatening to expel some 100,000 Armenian workers from the nation in
retaliation.
The House committee narrowly passed a resolution declaring the Ottoman
era killing of Armenians `genocide,’ leading Turkey to withdraw its
ambassador and sending the issue for future consideration in the full
House.
It is unclear how that vote and the Turkish PM’s threat are connected,
except that they both involve Armenians somehow. Edrogan insisted that
the Armenians are only allowed to remain in Turkey as a `display of
our peaceful approach,’ adding that `we have to get something in
return.’
President Obama, who campaigned during the most recent election in
favor of supporting the resolution, has completely changed his
position, and now vows to do everything in his power to stop the
measure from getting through the House of Representatives.