ARMENIAN MIGRANTS DRAGGED INTO POLITICS IN TURKEY
Reuters
March 19 2010
ISTANBUL (Reuters) – Grey-haired Lia Khachatourian is determined
to keep earning money in Istanbul for her family back in Armenia,
undaunted by Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan’s threat to deport
illegal Armenian migrants. "I’m not scared. I have to work here as the
situation in Armenia is very bad," said the 60-year-old care worker,
dressed in black, as she popped into a call shop from where Armenians
phone home.
Other Armenian migrants in the poor Kumkapi district voiced more
worry at Erdogan’s threatened retaliation following votes passed by
U.S. and Swedish lawmakers branding World War One-era killings of
Armenians by Ottoman Turks as genocide.
Neighbouring Armenia, which last year signed with Turkey a deal to
overcome a century of hostility and reopen their border, on Thursday
compared Erdogan’s warning to the language that preceded the 1915
mass killings.
"A 100 years has passed and the subject has been opened up again
and now it is us who are scared," said a 56-year-old Armenian
housekeeper and mother of two, who declined to give her name for fear
of jeopardising her livelihood.
"The prime minister spoke very harshly. We want nothing to do with
politics. We just came here to work. There is no economy in Armenia,"
she said after speaking to relatives back home.
Like many Armenian migrants in Istanbul, the former teacher came from
the Armenian city of Gyumri, following an earthquake in 1988. She
said relatives were now expressing concern about her situation after
Erdogan’s comments.
Erdogan told the BBC Turkish service there were 100,000 Armenians
living illegally in Turkey alongside a 70,000-strong Turkish-Armenian
community. "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 went on to blame the Armenian diaspora for causing problems
between Western governments and Turkey, a NATO partner and candidate
for EU membership.
STAYING HOME The number of Armenian immigrants in Turkey is
unknown. But Turkish-Armenian groups say Turkish politicians inflate
numbers of illegal workers and threaten expulsions whenever tensions
escalate between Ankara and Yerevan.
According to research last year by the Yerevan-based Eurasia
Partnership Foundation, some 94 percent of the irregular Armenian
workers in Turkey are women working in housekeeping, nursing and
childcare.
Omer Ercetin, 30, who runs one of many call shops in Kumkapi used by
Armenians to phone home, said an Armenian colleague had refused to
come to work fearing a police raid.
"It has been empty here for the last couple of days but normally it
is full. People are scared and don’t go out," he said.
Two middle-aged Armenian women fled from the shop when told a
journalist wanted to speak about Erdogan’s warning.
Armenian Foreign Minister Edward Nalbandian said on Thursday
that statements like Erdogan’s could "lead to absolutely negative
consequences."
Last year’s deal between the two countries has yet to be ratified by
their respective parliaments and the governments have accused each
other of trying to rewrite the texts.
The deportation threats will be frowned upon by European governments
that have voiced support for Turkey’s EU bid, and have backed the
peace accords with Armenia.
The issue of the Armenian massacres is deeply sensitive in Turkey,
which accepts that many Armenians were killed by Ottoman forces but
vehemently denies that up to 1.5 million died and that it amounted to
genocide — a term used by many Western historians and some foreign
parliaments.
But Armenians and Turks in the Kumkapi area said relations between
the two communities were good.
"The Turks are good people and they like us. I have no problems or
fights with anyone here. There is really nothing to worry about,"
said Arsen Barseghyan, 22, who travels between Turkey and Armenia
working in the cargo business.
(Additional reporting by Hasmik Lazarian, writing by Daren Butler)