World Markets Research Centre
Global Insight
March 18, 2010

Turkish PM Threatens to Expel Illegal Armenian Workers

BYLINE: Grace Annan

Turkish prime minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan is threatening to expel
illegal Armenian workers from the country if he sees it necessary. He
made this statement during his interview with the Turkish branch of
the BBC, stressing that there were 170,000 Armenians in Turkey, of
which 100,000 were not Turkish citizens, thus freeing the government
from having to host them. Erdogan further described the non-Turkish
Armenians as negatively affecting the state’s attitude by pushing for
worldwide recognition of the mass killings of Armenians in Ottoman
Turkey as genocide.

Significance:The last few weeks have been difficult for the Turkish
government with regards to relations with Armenia, and the strain is
starting to show. Erdogan’s populist remarks are part of a wider
effort by the government to assert itself in the discussion about the
right description of the mass killings, and have led to a run-in with
the Swedish parliament (seeTurkey – Sweden – Armenia: 12 March 2010:).
Civil society organisations question Erdogan’s figures: according to
the Eurasia Partnership Foundation, there are 12-15,000 illegally
working Armenians in Turkey, of whom over 90% are women doing menial
tasks and working in shops. Further, the study stresses that Turkish
officials have deported a very low number of Armenians, most of whom
were deported not for illegally working, but for other crimes.
Erdogan’s comments are a mere verbal retaliation at recent events, but
are unlikely to be followed up by mass deportations, given the
popularity of cheap labour from Armenia in Turkey.