ARMENIA SHOWED NO PROPER RESPONSE TO ERDOGAN’S THREATS TO DEPORT ARMENIANS FROM TURKEY: LOCAL EXPERT

ArmInfo
2010-04-02 14:28:00

ArmInfo. Turkish Prime Minister’s threats to deport illegal Armenian
migrants from Turkey received no proper response in Armenia, says
Karen Bekaryan, Chairman of the European Integration Organization.

Bekaryan told media on Friday that Erdogan’s statement was a real
display of racism. Actually, the Turkish prime minister "applied
for the title of a racist country," he said. Bekaryan outlined that
launching the process of recalling signatures put under the Zurich
documents would be an adequate response to the statement. The expert
believes that the Foreign Ministry of Armenia must urge Armenians not
to leave for Turkey since the country cannot protect their interests
for lack of diplomatic relations with that country.

To recall, in an interview with BBC on March 16 in London Erdogan said:
"Look, there are 170,000 Armenians in my country; 70,000 of them are
my citizens. But we are tolerating another 100,000. So, what will I do
tomorrow, I will say to those 100,000, it’s time for you to go back
to your land; I will do this. Why? Because they are not my citizens:
I have no obligation to keep them in my country. This is to say that
they [the Armenians] take our cordial approach negatively, and they
are not aware of it."