WHAT IS IN THE HEART OF TURKISH SOCIETY

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13:07:48 – 22/03/2010

Erdogan, the prime minister of Turkey, stated that he had been
misunderstood. He spoke not on Armenians in Turkey in general, but
on deporting those Armenians who were in the country illegally. We
understood him quite well the first time. The Turkish prime
minister suggested a discriminatory implementation of the law, based
on ethnicity. If the authorities of Turkey mentioned that it was
decided to deport all illegal migrants from the country, that would
have been reasonable. Although it wouldn’t have been acceptable, it
would nevertheless have been understandable. But the prime minister of
Turkey spoke only of deporting Armenians. That is to say, the illegal
Georgian, the Caucasian Tatar (known as the Azerbaijanis today),
Arab or Russian would continue to enjoy the right of breaking the
law, but not the Armenian. And how would the Turks have treated the
ethnic Armenians who were citizens of Georgia or Russia? They would
deport the Armenians with Georgian passports, but not the citizens
of Georgia who are Caucasian Tatar or Georgian in origin? It would
have been interesting to see the Georgian response.

In the 21st century, the mouth of a top-ranking official of the
executive of a state aspiring towards the European Union issues words
which call upon implementing the law on people not in accordance
with what those people have done, but on their ethnicity. This is
a serious matter. This is utterly in violation of Articles 1, 7 and
16.1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948).

I am almost sure that current Turkey will not initiate new
discriminatory state policies of suffering on Armenians. That would
not be in line with Turkey’s interests at the moment. Ethnic and
religious minorities in Turkey are anyway in dire straits, facing
unjustified limitations. Nevertheless, this is a very worrisome event,
as what Erdogan said is a manifestation of a very serious and profound
illness of Turkish society. Erdogan expresses with his tongue what
is in the heart of Turkish society.

Ara Papian Head of the Modus Vivendi Centre 19 March, 2010

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress