Erdogan threatens to throw out Armenians
Published: Mar 18, 2010 00:21 Updated: Mar 18, 2010 00:21
ANKARA: Turkey’s prime minister has threatened to expel thousands of illegal Armenian immigrants after US and Swedish lawmakers passed votes branding World War I-era killings of Armenians by Ottoman Turks as genocide.
Asked about the votes in an interview with the BBC Turkish Service that was broadcast late on Tuesday, Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan said: “There are currently 170,000 Armenians living in our country. Only 70,000 of them are Turkish citizens, but we are tolerating the remaining 100,000.
“If necessary, I may have to tell these 100,000 to go back to their country because they are not my citizens. I don’t have to keep them in my country.”
Erdogan’s comments met with a stern reaction from Armenia.
“This kind of political statement does not help improve relations between the two states,” said Prime Minister Tigran Sarksyan.
“I agree with the assessment that when the Turkish prime minister allows himself to make such statements, the events of 1915 immediately return to our memory,” he added.
Thousands of illegal Armenian immigrants, mostly women from the impoverished countryside, work as cleaning ladies and in other low-skilled jobs in Istanbul, 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 numbers of illegal workers and threaten expulsions whenever tensions escalate between Ankara and Yerevan.
Erdogan said Armenian immigrants had been allowed to work in Turkey as a “display of our peaceful approach, but we have to get something in return.”
Suat Kiniklioglu, foreign affairs spokesman for the ruling AK Party, played down Erdogan’s words, saying the premier felt the need to “remind the public” about Armenians living illegally in Turkey.
He said Erdogan was “not talking about something that would happen today or tomorrow.”

Comments
B F KENNNEDY
Mar 18, 2010 14:59
Report abuseI believe Turkey shall never say "We were wrong nor say sorry." They still feel the same as they did in 1915.
GEORGE MIRAKIAN
Mar 18, 2010 15:01
Report abuseWASIM SAYEED MALIK
Mar 18, 2010 16:13
Report abuseRUBA AKRAM
Mar 18, 2010 16:14
Report abuseI am with US as long as they are willing to read the real history of their country which established on the Extermination of indigenous peoples of that land,The massacre of Hiroshima and Nagasaki,Vietnam War,the war against Afghanistan and now the war in Iraq...
why condemning Turkey now,The only reason I can believe that Turkey is becoming a great peace-maker country ,has a great reputation in the whole world and Turkish politics revealed the true face of Isreal as a criminal group that does not want the peace at all,all they want is to keep on their crimes under the sight of the whole International community... so Lets hope before condemning Turkey,US would have the courage to admit its crimes against humanity, and their unlimited support to Isreal......
CENGIZ ERGüN
Mar 18, 2010 16:28
Report abuseThere are over 100.000 ILLEGAL Armenian people in Turkey.
They are working and earning money in here but most of Turkish citizens have no job.
Why should we feed these enemies?
Throw them away!!