HEAD OF ARMENIAN PACE DELEGATION ASKS COE TO PRESSURIZE TURKEY

news.am
April 16 2010
Armenia

Head of the PACE Armenian delegation Davit Harutyunyan sent a letter
to Secretary General of the CoE Thorbjorn Jagland and PACE President
Mevlut Cavusoglu, as well as Members of PACE National delegations
on Turkish Premier Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s threats to deport Armenian
migrants from the country.

The letter reads:

"Over the past two weeks the Prime Minister of Turkey has twice
explicitly stated his intention to deport Armenians who allegedly
reside in Turkey illegally. Immediately after the US Congress Foreign
Affairs Committee passed a resolution specifying &’the systematic and
deliberate annihilation of 1,500,000 Armenians [in Ottoman Empire]
as genocide’ Recep Tayyip Erdogan told to BBC &’We are turning a
blind eye to the remaining 100,000 [Armenians, who are not citizens
of Turkey]. Tomorrow, I may tell these 100,000 to go back to their
country, if it becomes necessary’.

After the Swedish Parliament passed a decision recognizing the
Genocide of Armenians in 1915, the Prime Minister of Turkey in his
interview to &’Spiegel’ told: &’We turn to Armenian Diaspora and
those countries that support the Diaspora: there are Armenians in
Turkey who are Turkish citizens, and there are those who live in
our country illegally. So far we have not considered the question
of deportation, but if the Diaspora continues to exert pressure [to
recognize the Armenian Genocide in Ottoman Empire], we could imagine
ourselves capable of doing that’.

These statements raised a wave of criticism even in Turkey.

Nevertheless the Prime Minister of Turkey refused to apologize and
to correct his mistake claiming only that he was misinterpreted and
misunderstood. But later events clearly showed that the Prime Minister
continues the same discriminatory approach.

These statements raise serious concerns in that a person who bears the
responsibility for the policy of the Republic of Turkey singles out
a particular group of national origin in a context totally unrelated
to any objective of addressing the issue of illegal migration. They
imply application of Turkey’s immigration laws and policies selectively
and inconsistently, targeting a specific national group.

Such irresponsible statements flagrantly violate every international
treaty and convention in the field of racism and discrimination and
require urgent attention and prompt reaction by the Council of Europe
and its Parliamentary Assembly in particular. It is regrettable that
up to now neither the Secretary General of the Council of Europe nor
the President of the PACE reacted to such irresponsible statements,
which violate the principles and values of the Organization.

Particularly, the Prime Minister of Turkey must be reminded without
ambiguity that persecution against any identifiable group on racial,
national, ethnic or other grounds that are universally recognized as
impermissible under international law constitutes serious violations of
human rights and, in some cases, qualifies as crimes against humanity.

It is particularly striking that such statements have been made by
a high official representing a country of origin for millions of
migrants, including illegal migrants in most parts of Europe.

Furthermore, the words uttered by the Prime Minister in his statements
manifest negative stereotyping of a particular group, namely migrants
of Armenian origin, and abuse a situation of vulnerability in which
these migrants find themselves.

The Council of Europe should, therefore issue a clear and unambiguous
warning to the Government of Turkey about the nature and content of
statements made by its Prime Minister and impermissibility of using
this issue for making pressure on foreign countries by discriminatory
application of migration policies towards a particular national group.

The Council should also remind strongly the Government of Turkey of
its obligations and responsibilities under international human rights
law to safeguard and protect migrants against illegal or violent acts.

It is noticeable that recognition and condemnation of the genocide
by the international community is not only a tribute to the victims
of the genocides, but also an important step towards prevention of
the crime of genocide in the future. Yet, the statement of the Prime
Minister of Turkey amounts to clear manifestation of hate speech and
humiliation of a particular minority group, which may give rise to
genocidal tendencies in Turkey. In this connection, it is important
to consider what steps need to be taken to prevent development of
such tendencies in Turkey as well as any manifestations of racism
and discrimination in respect of any national or ethnic group.

It’s worth drawing attention to the fact that to date Turkey has
not ratified Protocol N12 to the ECHR, which provides for a general
prohibition of discrimination and has not signed and ratified the
Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities,
the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages.

Based on his visit to Turkey in 2009, the Commissioner for Human
Rights of the Council of Europe initiated a dialogue on the human
rights of minorities and subsequently published his report on this
issue. The Commissioner focused on and provided recommendations on
a number of major issues, namely, he recommended the creation and
implementation of comprehensive anti-discrimination legislation,
the ratification of Protocol N12 to ECHR and Turkey’s accession to
the Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities.

In its third Report on Turkey (adopted on 25 June 2004) the European
Commission against Racism and Intolerance (ECRI) emphasized the need
to reinforce respect for the rights of immigrants, irrespective of
their legal status, asylum seekers and refugees.

ECRI also recommends that the Turkish authorities ratify Protocol
N12 to the ECHR as soon as possible. It recommended to the Turkish
authorities to:

1. make the declaration under Article 14 of the International
Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Racial Discrimination,
empowering the Committee for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination
to receive individual communications,

2. consider withdrawing their reservations in respect of Article 27 of
the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and Article 13
of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights,

3. sign and ratify UNESCO Convention against Discrimination in
Education, Framework Convention for the Protection of National
Minorities, the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages,
the Convention on the Participation of Foreigners in Public Life at
Local Level and the European Convention on Nationality,

4. sign and ratify Convention on Cybercrime and its Additional
Protocol on the criminalization of acts of a racist or xenophobic
nature committed through computer networks.

I believe that the Council of Europe should immediately take adequate
steps to influence the Government of Turkey to abstain from public
threats or actions of racist or discriminatory nature.

For your information I’ve attached to this letter appendix, which
contains the declarations and reservations of the Republic of Turkey
to some of the most important international treaties dealing with
the elimination of all forms of racial discrimination and rights
of migrants."