ERDOGAN THREATENS TO DEPORT ARMENIAN CITIZENS IN TURKEY
Cihan News Agency, Turkey
April 15 2015
CIHAN | ISTANBUL- 15.04.2015 19:50:21
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has said that Turkey retains the right
to deport the roughly 100,000 citizens of the Republic of Armenia
who live and work in Turkey, at a time when there is an increasing
tendency, particularly in Europe, to recognize the 1915 mass killings
of Armenians during World War I under Ottoman rule as genocide.
Speaking to reporters before his departure to Kazakhstan for an
official visit, Erdogan also criticized the European Parliament (EP),
which was set to vote to acknowledge the 1915 events as genocide on
Wednesday in its plenary session.
Downplaying the importance of the EP’s vote, Erdogan said that
regardless of the outcome, Turkey will not take it seriously and
the EP’s decision will go “in one ear and out the other” for Turkey
and that it is not possible for Turkey to accept responsibility for
such a crime. The president added that the roughly 100,000 Armenian
nationals working in Turkey are not Turkish citizens and that the
country can deport them if it wants to. “We can deport them, even if
we haven’t yet,” he said.
President Erdogan also said that he does not have to defend Turkey’s
position because the country has no stain on its conscience such as
genocide. He added that he does not understand why the media or the
Turkish nation adopt a defensive position on this matter and that if
one includes Turkish citizens of Armenian origin, there are in total
120,000 Armenians living in Turkey and that they all have access to
public services.
Since independence from the Soviet Union, Armenia has struggled with
economic problems and Turkey is one of the best options for thousands
of Armenians to live and work.
This is not the first time that Erdogan has brought up the deportation
threat for Armenians. He expressed the same idea back in 2010 and
asked the Armenian diaspora, which has been actively working around
the world to lobby governments to acknowledge that the 1915 events
constitute genocide, to act responsively.
This year is set to be particularly tough diplomatically for Turkey,
with Armenians preparing to commemorate the centennial of the start
of the 1915 events on April 24. Yerevan will be hosting a number of
world leaders during commemoration ceremonies.
In an unexpected move, Pope Francis employed the word “genocide”
to describe the 1915 massacres during Mass last Sunday, prompting
Turkey to recall its envoy to the Holy See.
(Cihan/Today’s Zaman)