Turkish PM threatens to expel Armenian workers
ANKARA (AFP) - Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has threatened to expel thousands of illegal Armenians workers amid tensions over allegations that Armenians were victims of genocide under the Ottoman Empire.
RELATED NEWS:
• Ankara happy with Swedish PM's stance on vote
• Turkey fury over Sweden's 'genocide' vote
Resolutions voted recently in the United States and Sweden to brand the World War I killings as "genocide" undermined peace efforts with Armenia, Erdogan said, according to excerpts from an interview with the BBC Turkish service published on the BBC website.
"Those people make shows with those resolutions... And they harm the Armenian people as well... And things become deadlocked," he was quoted as saying during a visit to London.
Referring to about 100,000 Armenians working illegally in Turkey that Ankara has so far tolerated, he said: "So what will I do tomorrow? If necessary, I will tell them 'come on, back to your country'... I'm not obliged to keep them in my country.
"Those actions (on genocide resolutions) unfortunately have a negative impact on our sincere attitudes," he said.
Forced to leave their impoverished country to earn a living, thousands of Armenians, mostly women, have settled in Istanbul, working mainly in manual jobs or as nannies and cleaning ladies.
Erdogan blamed the "genocide" resolutions on the influential Armenian diaspora in the United States and Western Europe.
"We are extending our hand, but if our counterparts clench their hand into a fist, there will be nothing we can do," he said.
Following Swiss-brokered talks to end decades of enmity, Turkey and Armenia signed an accord in October to establish diplomatic ties and open their border.
The process however has hit snags, with both countries accusing each other of lacking true commitment to the deal.
The climate was further poisoned this month when the US House Foreign Affairs Committee approved a non-binding resolution branding the massacres of Armenians a genocide, and the Swedish parliament followed suit last week.
Turkey recalled its ambassadors from both countries, warning that bilateral ties and reconciliation efforts with Armenia would suffer.
Armenians say up to 1.5 million of their kin perished in a systematic extermination campaign during World War I as the Ottoman Empire fell apart.
Turkey counters that between 300,000 and 500,000 Armenians and at least as many Turks were killed in what was a civil strife when Armenians rose up against their Ottoman rulers and sided with invading Russian forces.
Parliaments in several other countries have also recognised the killings as genocide in the past.
Last Updated (Tuesday, 16 March 2010 21:55)
Comments
[quote name="mustafaka"]XXVI
Now I want to ask the Armenian diaspora:
‘If all the scholars of the world, including the international scholars of genocide, support your thesis of genocide, then WHY HAVE YOU SPENT THIS EFFORT TO FALSIFY ALL THESE DO[censored]ENT S? /quote]
If it was the Armenians who committed a genocide against the Turks, then why are the TURKS living in Anatolia now?? Hahaha. Look at who is left in your country. It certainly isn't us.
This may be hard for you to digest. So please take a few days before responding.
Will you be able to condemn the Armenians who slaughtered the Turks and Muslims and buried them into large holes and even threw alive children into these holes in the Eastern Anatolia?(see diary of Russian Lieutenant Colonel Twerdo-Khlebof 'I wittnessed and I Lived Through Erzurum, 1917-1918'; www.tsk.mil.tr/ermeni_sorunu/arsiv_belgeleriyle...). So, I am afraid, it is actually you the world opinion who faces a big examination!
And I want to ask the world opinion:
Your sensitivity about the news condemning genocides, mass murders is appreciable. But while doing this, will you be able to be unbiased discarding all the prejudices the history has instilled you up till now? Will you be able to prefer scholar research rather than your prejudices?
Will you be able to acknowledge the great massacres inflicted on the Turks and Muslims by the Armenians before and after 1915?
Now I want to ask the Armenian diaspora:
‘If all the scholars of the world, including the international scholars of genocide, support your thesis of genocide, then WHY HAVE YOU SPENT THIS EFFORT TO FALSIFY ALL THESE DO[censored]ENT S? WHY HAVE YOU NEEDED LIES? WHY ARE YOU AFRAID OF DO[censored]ENT S SO MUCH? What is the reason of your strict resistance to present your thesisin historical commissions made up of historians from both sides and other countries?
*’The Armenians informed the Allies that they would establish an army of 150 000 soldiers and attempt to establish an independent Armenia in the east (From Berlin November 6, 1917; vorzulegen z.G.K.:W.L.R.Nadolny. German Archives of the Foreign Ministry, Bd.48,R.14097, No.7169).
*’ Armenians massacred many Turks, in the district of Erzincan and surroundings where the Russian retreated’ (The telegram sent by Kühlmann, German ambassador of İstanbul to German Foreign Ministry.
The French succeeded to take back Antep, by the help of the Armenians. Therefore, the Armenians are an ally of France’ (USARCHIVES NARA T1192. Roll 4.860J.01/431).
*A list of the Armenians who fought in the French Army and died had been displayed under the title of ‘The Armenians who died for France’. In the list, the cities where these soldiers were born were also stated and nearly all of them were Ottoman Armenians (http://www.geocities.com/Paris/Palais/2230/ww2.html)
And here are evidences about the Armenians who returned to their houses: These Armenians cooperated with the French and English armies and fought in these armies individually wearing their uniforms. Here are archive evidences:
*Boghos Nubar Pasha: ‘In 1919 and 1920, when the Kemalists attacked to the French soldiers, the Armenians made war for France in Maraş, Haçin, Pozantı and Sis.
* In a memorandum presented by Bogos Nubar Pasha, chief of the Armenian delegation in Paris Conference which started in December 1918, it was announced that 150 000 Armenians were given financial support and taken to Cilicia from Syria, by the French government (US ARCHIVES NARA T1192. Roll 4.860J.01/431).
Additionally more than 30 000 Armenians lived in Adana and 40 000 in Aleppo (Der Neue Orient May 1919, p.178)
*The Armenian population in Cilicia (Çukurova) was reported as 218 000 in a do[censored]ent dated July 1920 (US ARCHIVES NARA, Mikrofilm No: T 1192R 2;860J.01/395. Appendix. From Acting High Commissioner Dulles to the Foreign Minister).