ARMENIAN DEPORTATION REMARKS DRAW IRE LOCALLY AND ABROAD
Today’s Zaman
March 19 2010
Turkey
Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s remarks about the possible
deportation of undocumented Armenian workers from Turkey after US and
Swedish lawmakers passed resolutions branding the World War I-era
killings of Anatolian Armenians as genocide have sparked reactions
both in Yerevan and in Ankara.
"Look, there are 170,000 Armenians in my country — 70,000 of them are
my citizens, but we are [tolerating] 100,000 of them [illegally] in our
country. So, what will we do tomorrow? If it is necessary, I will tell
them, ‘Come on, back to your country.’ I will do it. Why? They are not
my citizens. I am not obliged to keep them in my country. I mean these
are [defenders of the Armenian claims of genocide]. Their attitude is
negatively affecting our sincere attitude, and they are not aware of
it," Erdogan told the BBC Turkish service in an interview on Tuesday.
Erdogan’s comments met with a stern reaction from Armenia. "This kind
of political statement does not help improve relations between the two
states," said Armenian Prime Minister Tigran Sarksyan. "I agree with
the assessment that when the Turkish prime minister allows himself
to make such statements, the events of 1915 immediately return to
our memory," he added.
Thousands of illegal Armenian immigrants, mostly women from the
impoverished countryside, work as cleaning ladies and in other
low-skilled jobs in Ä°stanbul, where many settled after an earthquake
in their homeland in 1988. The exact number of Armenian immigrants in
Turkey is unknown. But Turkish-Armenian groups say Turkish politicians
inflate the numbers of illegal workers and threaten expulsions whenever
tensions escalate between Ankara and Yerevan.
In Ankara, Deniz Baykal, the leader of the main opposition Republican
People’s Party (CHP), called Erdogan’s remarks "grave" and "against
human rights."
"Wanting to use people who came to Turkey for work as a trump card
in the resolution of a dispute is definitely unacceptable and
is against human rights. Various people may have some ideas, an
opposition party deputy may also say something [similar], but these
are not statements that have results — perhaps you can call them
inappropriate statements. But when a prime minister, a person who has
the authority to deport them, says such things, then it is very grave,"
Baykal told his party’s parliamentary group meeting on Wednesday.
Back in October 2006, upon the adoption of a French bill criminalizing
the denial of the alleged genocide of Armenians, CHP deputy Å~^ukru
Elekdag, a former Turkish ambassador to the US, had called for
sanctions on Armenia, which he said was working in cooperation with the
Armenian diaspora for international recognition of the alleged genocide
and said that some Armenian illegal workers should be deported.
In Ä°stanbul, the Young Civilians, a civil society group known for
its creative demonstrations in support of democracy, held a protest on
Ä°stiklal Street, in a show of protest against the prime minister. The
group digitally edited a photograph of Talat PaÅ~_a to include photos
of Erdogan and Canan Arıtman of the CHP, who also suggested deporting
Armenian workers in Turkey.
"Let’s send them via the Erzurum-Kars route, barefoot," text on the
photo read, in apparent reference to the 1915 forced emigration of
Anatolian Armenians. Armenians were forcefully expelled to the Syrian
desert in 1915 upon orders from Talat PaÅ~_a.