Turkey may deport illegal Armenian immigrants

Turkey's prime minister has threatened to expel 100,000 illegal Armenian immigrants from his country, as the row over the World War I massacre of Armenians intensifies.

Recep Tayyip Erdogan warned that action could be taken if foreign parliaments followed US suit by recognizing the massacre of Armenians by the Ottomans as genocide.

“In my country there are 170,000 Armenians; 70,000 of them are citizens. We are turning a blind eye to the remaining 100,000,” Recep Tayyip Erdogan told the BBC Turkish service late on Tuesday while on a visit to London.

“So, what am I going to do tomorrow? I may tell these 100,000 to go back to their country, if it becomes necessary,” he added.

Turkey recalled its ambassadors to Washington and Stockholm earlier this month after US and Swedish lawmakers passed votes branding the killing of Armenians as genocide.

Ankara reacted to the move by warning that the decision could hurt a fragile effort to reconcile with Armenia after a century of hostility.

In the interview, Erdogan said the Armenian diaspora has pushed the resolutions in the United States and Sweden and called on Armenia and other foreign governments to avoid being swayed by their lobbying.

Erdogan's Tuesday comments, however, did not go down well in Yerevan, where the Armenian Prime Minister Tigran Sarksyan described them as a “political statement” that could not help improve relations between the two neighboring states.

“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.

Muslim Turkey and Christian Armenia signed historic accords last year to establish diplomatic ties and open their border, thanks to Erdogan's determination to champion a policy of reconciliation with Armenia in spite of domestic objection.

Analysts believe the Turkish prime minister's latest outburst probably has more to do with domestic political pressure than foreign policy, as he sees himself being accused of losing the genocide dispute.

Source: PressTV.
Link: http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=121119§ionid=351020204.