ArmenPress
March 7 2005
ARMENIAN OFFICIAL QUESTIONS VERACITY OF TURKISH FM’s ANNOUNCEMENT
YEREVAN, MARCH 5, ARMENPRESS: An Armenian government official
questioned today the veracity of an announcement by Turkish foreign
minister Abdullah Gul who was quoted by Turkish daily Hurriyet as
saying last week that some 40,000 Armenian citizens live and work in
Istanbul and other Turkish cities.
Gagik Yeganian, head of a government-affiliated department of
migrants and refugees, said Gul’s announcement was an effort to
exploit this issue in its drive to join the EU and to allege that
even without diplomatic relations between the two countries Armenians
live and work in Turkey freely.
Citing official figures, Yeganian said in the years between
1998-2004 58,839 Armenian citizens went to Turkey and 53,318 of them
came back. According to him, the overwhelming majority of Armenians
traveling to Turkey are either tourists or shuttle-traders. He also
said about 100 Turkish citizens arrive in Armenia a month.