AZG Armenian Daily #088, 09/05/2008

Turks-Armenians-Jews

TURKISH-JEWISH BUSINESSMAN: "TURKEY LOST WHEN JEWISH,
ARMENIAN BUSINESSMEN WERE CHASED AWAY AND MADE TO
LEAVE THE COUNTRY"

In a letter to the chief editor of Turkish daily
Referans, owner of Alarko Holding Izak Alaton reacted
to a recent high court decision in Turkey that banned
the sale of real estate to foreigners. Alaton wrote
about how in 1940s Armenian and Jewish businessmen
were chased and compelled to leave the country - at
Turkey's loss - and more recently how willing
investors for big development projects in Turkey were
rejected just because they were Jewish - as in the
case of the Israeli businessman Sammy Ofer who would
invest one billion dollars to develop a port in
Istanbul. Alaton said that the bureaucracy and the
media had joined forces to stop the project.

In his letter that is published at Referans, Alaton
wrote, "As long as this paranoia, this xenophobic,
anti non-Muslim, antisemitic sentiments will continue
to exist in Turkey, we will all be obliged to live in
mediocrity, stuck in the sidelines of life."

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress