SOCIAL DEMOCRAT LEADER MONA SAHLIN SLAMS ERDOGAN OVER EXPULSION THREAT

The Local

March 18 2010
Sweden

Social Democrat leader Mona Sahlin has blasted Turkish prime minister
Recep Tayyip Erdogan over threats that he would consider ordering
100,000 Armenians to leave Turkey.

Speaking to the BBC on Tuesday, Erdogan cited figures showing that
only 70,000 of the 170,000 Armenians living in Turkey were citizens
of his country.

"If necessary I will tell the 100,000: okay, time to go back to your
country. Why? They are not my citizens. I am not obliged to keep them
in my country," he said.

Erdogan’s comments followed non-binding resolutions by Sweden’s
parliament and the US Congress to recognize as genocide the massacres
of Armenians by Ottoman Turks in 1915.

"Perhaps this is more an expression of political jockeying in Turkey,"
said Sahlin.

"I really hope he didn’t seriously mean that 100,000 people of Armenian
extraction living in Turkey but lacking Turkish passports should be
thrown out."

Sahlin also felt that Erdogan’s statements put pressure on Sweden’s
prime minister Fredrik Reinfeldt to speak out.

"I am assuming the dialogue Reinfeldt says he is having with Erdogan
does not only entail apologising for the Swedish parliament’s decision
but also involves standing up for the human rights of Armenians living
in Turkey," she said.

The Social Democrat leader added that she had no regrets about the
decision of the left-green opposition to push through the resolution
last week with the help of four centre-right defectors.

Agneta Berliner was one of two Liberal Party MPs to ignore centre-right
calls to reject the resolution.

"I don’t think this kind of threat should have any bearing on decisions
by the Swedish parliament. In fact, actions such as this only serve
to show how far Turkey still has to go before it is a full democracy
that respects human rights," she said.

Berliner dismissed suggestions that the Riksdag vote had played into
the hands of forces in Turkey opposed to the democratic process.

"If that’s the case we can just roll over on every issue. I don’t
think there’s any value for Turkey-friendly countries like Sweden in
not expressing what we think," she said.

Paul O’Mahony