ERDOGAN UNDER FIRE AT HOME FOR REMARKS ON ARMENIAN WORKERS

Today’s Zaman
March 18 2010
Turkey

Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s remarks about the possible
deportation of irregular Armenian workers in Turkey have angered civil
society organizations despite the ruling Justice and Development Party
(AK Party) attempts to explain that Erdogan did not intend to expel
these workers but only wanted to underline Turkey’s "magnanimity."

"Look, there are 170,000 Armenians in my country — 70,000 of them
are my citizens, but we are managing [tolerating] 100,000 of them 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 affecting our sincere attitude in a negative way, and
they are not aware of it," Erdogan told the BBC Turkish service in an
interview on Tuesday during a visit to London for talks with British
Prime Minister Gordon Brown. He was responding to a question about a
couple of resolutions passed at a US congressional panel and in the
Swedish Parliament earlier this month recognizing Armenian claims of
genocide by Ottoman Turks a century ago. He described the votes as a
"show" and warned that they were harming Turkey’s efforts to normalize
its ties with Armenia. "We are committed to the zero-problem policy
[with Turkey’s neighbors], but there is nothing we can do if the
other side clenches its fist while we extend a hand."

Leaving aside foreign policy considerations, civil society
organizations criticized Erdogan’s remarks on several grounds: first,
he mentioned Armenian Turkish citizens together with the citizens
of Armenia, and secondly, he was using foreign workers as a tool of
foreign policy and neglecting the humanitarian side of the problem.

But Suat Kınıklıoglu, deputy chairman of the AK Party Foreign
Affairs Committee, underlined that Erdogan was trying to explain that
Turkey tolerates the irregular Armenian workers. "As has been known
for many years, there are Armenians illegally living and working
in Turkey, and as a reflection of our goodwill and efforts toward
normalization which started in 2005, we do not really touch them.

We tolerate them and take their difficult circumstances into
consideration. In particular, we are not questioning their status due
to the acceleration of the normalization process in Turkish-Armenian
relations. The prime minister needed to draw this fact to people’s
attention, especially now, when resolutions have been accepted which
damage normalization. I think Turkey’s magnanimity is being ignored,"
he said, and added that the prime minister did not mean he would
immediately send those workers back to their country.

Ozturk Turkdogan, the chairman of the Human Rights Association (Ä°HD),
said Erdogan’s remarks could easily be considered a "threat" and
as discrimination. "These remarks could lead some people to think
that to expel people is a 2010 version of forced migration. This
mentality is far from human rights-oriented thinking. People have
the right to work, and this is universal. There are many Turkish
workers all over the world; does it mean that Turkey will accept
their expulsion when there is an international problem? Secondly,
these remarks are discriminatory; there are many workers in Turkey
of different nationalities," he said.

Ceren Ozturk from the immigrant solidarity network said that free
circulation of people is a universal right and Erdogan’s remarks
are not acceptable. "The right to free circulation cannot be used
as a wild card in international relations. Immigrants have to have
equal rights with Turkish citizens because they are producing and
contributing to society," she said.

Armenian issue as litmus test Journalist Hayko Bagdat said Turkish
foreign policy loves the principle of "reciprocity," but uses its own
citizens who are minorities. "If the prime minister is angry with the
US or Sweden, he should expel the citizens of those countries who
are living or working in Turkey. The poor Armenian workers here —
by the way, their number is not 100,000 at all — have nothing to do
with the genocide resolutions," he said.

He added that Erdogan had also made a distinction between "good
Armenians" and "bad Armenians." "The prime minister mentioned
Armenian Turkish citizens and Armenian citizens together, but later
talked about expelling the poor Armenian workers. This means that
the official policy has been lying to us for years. He put everyone
in the same category, but according to what — according to their
ethnic origin. But for years we have been told that there are no
distinctions on the basis of ethnic origin. This means that "unity"
is not internalized and the roots of discrimination are very strong,"
Bagdat said.

He added that there are two camps in Turkey now: one is claiming
that it is trying to change the system and the other one is resisting
this change, but when it comes to the Armenians, they have a common
understanding.

"The Armenian question is the litmus test for everyone to find out if
they really want a change in the system," he said. After the "genocide"
resolutions in the US and Sweden, during a debate over the issue
in Parliament’s Foreign Affairs Commission, Canan Arıtman from the
Republican People’s Party (CHP) suggested deporting Armenian workers
in Turkey. In the past, she has also called for an investigation into
the ancestry of President Abdullah Gul’s mother, implying that she
was of Armenian origin. Gul took Arıtman to court.

The Ä°HD’s Turkdogan was also critical of Erdogan’s remarks regarding
ethnically Armenian Turkish citizens: "We can see that the classic
republican understanding based on ethnic Turkism is still valid.

Minorities cannot be the subject of bargaining in international
relations. This is racist discourse and only proves how far we are
from a human rights-oriented perspective," Turkdogan said.

Number of Armenian workers is controversial issue There is controversy
over the precise number of Armenians illegally working in Turkey,
but a recent study by the Eurasia Partnership Foundation claimed
that there are between 12,000 and 13,000 Armenian citizens working in
Turkey. The study conducted by Alin Ozinan states that according to
official numbers, 6,000 Armenians did not return home after traveling
to Turkey between 2000 and 2008. Ozinan adds figures from the 1990s
to this number and says the number of Armenians illegally living
in Turkey is not 70,000 to 100,000 as has previously been asserted,
but is actually between 12,000 and 13,000.

According to the study, 94 percent of the Armenians working in Turkey
are women, with very few Armenian men accompanying their spouses or
working here. Armenian women tend to work as childcare providers,
servants, janitors and saleswomen. Most of the Armenian men who
accompany their wives here choose not to work at all, while those
who do tend to work in the jewelry business. In the past, Turkish
foreign ministers and diplomats have also claimed that the Armenians
living in Turkey number around 70,000. Turkey has deported very few
Armenians working irregularly here in recent years, the report says,
asserting that Armenians are only deported if they have committed a
crime outside of working illegally; the crime rate amongst immigrant
Armenians is very low.