ARMENIAN PATIENT TO BE GRANTED TURKISH CITIZENSHIP
YASEMIN BUDAK

Today’s Zaman
April 27 2010
Turkey

Arthur Manukyan, an Armenian suffering from a chronic illness who
has sought a permanent residence permit from Turkey, is likely to
be granted Turkish citizenship at the order of Prime Minister Recep
Tayyip Erdogan.

"I am thankful to our prime minister. If I gain citizenship, I
will go to Armenia and visit my friends. I am very happy," he told
Today’s Zaman. Since he was one of thousands of undocumented Armenian
immigrants living in Istanbul, he was not able to leave Turkey.

Armenian Archbishop Aram AteÅ~_yan and the president of the board of
trustees of the Armenian Surp Pırgic Hospital, Bedros Å~^irinoglu,
previously requested a permanent residence permit for Manukyan, who
suffers from moyamoya syndrome, an inherited disease in which certain
arteries in the brain are constricted, in their talks with Erdogan.

Erdogan then ordered officials to look into the issue and signaled
that a permanent residence permit would be given to him.

While Manukyan was waiting for the permit, Republican People’s Party
(CHP) Ä°zmir deputy Canan Arıtman reminded Erdogan of Manukyan’s
case during parliamentary talks on a reform package over the
weekend. When Interior Minister BeÅ~_ir Atalay, who was with Erdogan,
said citizenship would be better and Arıtman said his family should
also be granted citizenship due to his illness, Erdogan reportedly
said, "OK."

Manukyan and his family were invited to the Ä°stanbul Police Chief’s
Office yesterday, and he is expected to be granted Turkish citizenship
soon.

Thousands of undocumented Armenian immigrants currently live in
Ä°stanbul, where many settled after an earthquake in their homeland
in 1988. The exact number of Armenian immigrants in Turkey is unknown,
but Turkish-Armenian groups say Turkish politicians inflate the number
of illegal workers and threaten expulsions whenever tensions escalate
between Ankara and Yerevan.