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Turkey Threatens To Deport 100,000 Armenians

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  • Turkey Threatens To Deport 100,000 Armenians

    TURKEY THREATENS TO DEPORT 100,000 ARMENIANS

    MSNBC
    http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/35907 247/ns/world_news-europe/
    March 17 2010

    'I don't have to keep them in my country,' Turkish premier says

    ANKARA - Turkey's prime minister has warned that he might deport
    up to 100,000 Armenians living in Turkey without citizenship after
    resolutions passed by U.S. and Swedish lawmakers defining World War
    One-era killings of Armenians by Ottoman Turks as genocide.

    Earlier this month, Turkey withdrew its ambassadors to Washington
    and Stockholm after a U.S. congressional committee and the Swedish
    parliament passed the non-binding resolutions.

    It also warned that the resolutions could affect progress in fragile
    reconciliation process between Turkey and Armenia.

    Asked during an interview with the BBC Turkish service in London
    on Tuesday what he thought about the resolutions, 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."

    He added: "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."

    The majority of Armenians in Turkey live and work in Istanbul. Many
    came after an earthquake in their homeland in 1988 and work illegally
    and send remittances home.

    'Important decision' for Armenia Erdogan accused the Armenian diaspora
    of being behind the resolutions in foreign parliaments, and called
    on Armenia and other foreign governments to avoid being swayed by
    their lobbying.

    "Armenia has an important decision to make. It should free itself from
    its attachment to the diaspora. Any country which cares for Armenia,
    namely the U.S., France and Russia, should primarily help Armenia to
    free itself from the influence of the diaspora."

    Erdogan's comments threaten to strain Turkish-Armenian ties, which
    are traumatized by the deportation and killing of Armenians during
    the chaotic end of the Ottoman empire nearly a century ago.

    Click for related content House panel OKs Armenian genocide measure

    The issue of the Armenian massacres is deeply sensitive in Turkey,
    which accepts that many Christian Armenians were killed by Ottoman
    Turks but vehemently denies that up to 1.5 million died and that it
    amounted to genocide -- a term employed by many Western historians
    and some foreign parliaments.

    Muslim Turkey and Christian Armenia agreed last year to establish
    diplomatic ties and open their border if their parliaments approved
    peace accords, but the votes have not taken place and the governments
    have accused each other of trying to rewrite the texts.
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