Today’s Zaman, Turkey
March 20 2010

ErdoÄ?an dismisses criticism after deportation remarks

Prime Minister Recep Tayyip ErdoÄ?an on Friday dismissed criticism and
reassured Turkey’s Armenian community that they are not being targeted
after facing anger for his threats to expel Armenian illegal
immigrants.

`We have never had any problems with our Armenian citizens,’ ErdoÄ?an
told a meeting of his Justice and Development Party (AK Party) in
Ankara. He complained that he was misquoted in the media, which he
said misrepresented his remarks to suggest that they are targeting
Turkey’s Armenian community.

`Unfortunately, my remarks were published after the reference to
illegal immigrants was taken out. There is a vast difference between
`expelling Armenians’ and `expelling Armenians working here
illegally’,’ ErdoÄ?an said. `We have no such remarks concerning those
Armenians that are our citizens, but unfortunately the televisions or
newspapers do not say that.’

The prime minister, whose government has launched a democratic
initiative to expand rights for Kurds and non-Muslim minorities
including the Armenians, said his position on minorities was clear. `I
want to remind everyone here that I am the first prime minister to
courageously voice the injustices inflicted on our minorities,’ he
said.

ErdoÄ?an, in an interview earlier this week with the BBC Turkish
service, said there were 70,000 Armenians living in the country
illegally alongside Turkey’s 70,000-strong Armenian community.
ErdoÄ?an, responding to the passage of resolutions endorsing claims
that Armenians were subject to genocide at the hands of the late
Ottoman Empire first at the US House Foreign Affairs Committee and
then in the Swedish parliament earlier this month, said in the
interview that the Armenian diaspora was causing harm both to a
process of reconciliation with Armenia and to Armenians. `If
necessary, I may have to tell these 100,000 [Armenians] to go back to
their country because they are not my citizens. I don’t have to keep
them in my country,’ he said.

The remarks drew ire from Turkish media commentators and rights
groups, who said ErdoÄ?an’s remarks meant Armenian workers — most of
whom work for monthly wages of a few hundred liras — were being used
as a bargaining chip in foreign policy.

Columnist Cengiz Ã?andar, one of many in the Turkish media who chided
ErdoÄ?an for his remarks, said in his column in the Radikal daily that
ErdoÄ?an should apologize to Armenians.

ErdoÄ?an angrily dismissed the call in his speech: `I am talking to
those who advise me to apologize; I know very well whom to apologize
to. Whose advocate are you?’

President Abdullah Gül, widely seen as the architect of the
rapprochement with Armenia, told reporters this week that ErdoÄ?an’s
BBC remarks meant to underscore that there was no hostility toward
Armenians, emphasizing that humanitarian and political issues should
be separated from each other and recalling that ErdoÄ?an is always
sensitive on humanitarian issues.

ErdoÄ?an’s government, which broke a foreign policy taboo by initiating
talks with neighboring Armenia to restore ties, now complains its
efforts have not been reciprocated. Following the US and Swedish
votes, the government warned that the reconciliation process was being
harmed. Relations with the US and Sweden are also at risk: Turkey
recalled its ambassadors in both countries and cancelled senior-level
contacts in protest of the resolutions. Similar resolutions may now be
voted on in the British and Bulgarian parliaments.

ErdoÄ?an vowed retaliation if such moves go ahead. `There will be a
heavy price for any initiative that would complicate the process. And
it will be those who pursue and support these initiatives, not our
nation, who will pay this price,’ he said.

Criticism against Israel
ErdoÄ?an also lashed out at Israel for its recent announcement that it
plans to build 1,600 new homes for Jewish settlers in disputed east
Jerusalem, casting shadows over prospects for a restart of peace talks
with the Palestinians. `Israel is making an effort to annihilate
Palestine by making it smaller and smaller. This is the tactic,’ he
said.

Israel angered the international community when it announced during a
visit by US Vice President Joe Biden to the region this month that it
would build new housing units in a part of Jerusalem that it captured
in 1967 and annexed unilaterally.

ErdoÄ?an, who has repeatedly criticized Israel for its deadly offensive
in Gaza last year, said Israel should avoid steps that could change
the status of east Jerusalem, which Palestinians hope would be their
capital in a future Palestinian state. He also suggested that Turkey
would not end its stern criticism of Israel unless Israel changes its
policies. `If there is oppression somewhere, we will not accept that,’
he said.

BOX: Many back deporting illegal Armenians

A survey conducted by the Ankara-based MetroPOLL Strategic and Social
Research Center has revealed that many in the nation, 48.8 percent,
said they support the deportation of Armenians who are working in
Turkey illegally. Conversely, 33.9 percent of respondents said they do
not support the deportation of these Armenians while the rest, 17.3
percent, preferred not to answer.

The survey was conducted across 31 provinces in Turkey on March 18,
with 1,006 individuals.

When asked whether they knew how many Armenians work in Turkey
illegally, 38 percent said they had no idea while 26.8 percent said
there were 100,000 illegal Armenians, the figure uttered by ErdoÄ?an.

In response to another question, asking whether they know which
countries’ parliaments or committees recently approved resolutions
recognizing the killing of Armenians in 1915 as `genocide,’ 44.9
percent said they did not know while 20.1 percent correctly selected
the US and Sweden. Ä°stanbul Today’s Zaman

20 March 2010, Saturday
TODAY’S ZAMAN Ä°STANBUL

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