Armenian genocide talk has Turkey threatening to expel Armenians
| Istanbul, Turkey
Raising the stakes in Turkey鈥檚 rejection of the genocide label by US and Swedish lawmakers for the mass deaths of Armenians a century ago, Turkey says it might send home up to 100,000 Armenians currently living in Turkey without citizenship.
Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, angry over the decision earlier this month by a US congressional committee and by the Swedish parliament to call the 1915 deaths of up to 1.5 million Armenians a 鈥済enocide,鈥� has said the issue could disrupt a nascent Turkey-Armenia reconciliation process started last year.
Mr. Erdogan is now unlikely to attend an energy summit hosted by Barack Obama in April, Hurriyet newspaper reported. Erdogan already pulled out of a top-level meeting in Sweden, and Turkey withdrew ambassadors from both Washington and Stockholm after the two votes.
The issue of deaths during the expulsion of 海角大神 Armenians by forces of the crumbling Ottoman Empire at the end of World War I are sensitive in Turkey, which argues that killing took place on both sides.
More broadly, NATO member and European Union candidate Turkey does not want to be lumped with Nazi Germany, Cambodia, or Rwanda as perpetrators of genocide in the 20th century.
鈥淭here are currently 170,000 Armenians living in our country,鈥� Erdogan told the BBC Turkish service in London on Tuesday, according to Reuters. 鈥淥nly 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鈥檛 have to keep them in my country.鈥�
Most of those Armenians live in Istanbul, where they have lived since a 1988 earthquake in their own country and from which they send remittances home.
They have been caught up in a political and emotional tug-of-war over well-documented history that still rankles both sides. The US and Swedish votes were a result of steady lobbying for years by the powerful Armenian disapora, which has pushed for similar genocide resolutions in other countries.
The latest votes knocked the Turkish government 鈥渙ff balance, so there is a certain anger and concern that they need to deter upcoming votes in [other] parliaments by making a strong stand against this,鈥� says Cengiz Candar, a columnist for Radikal newspaper and Hurriyet Online in Istanbul.
鈥淚t seems a very careless statement,鈥� says Mr. Candar. He adds that Erdogan's comments may appeal to some nationalists in Turkey but have also prompted a 鈥渧ery negative response鈥� by many who normally support the policies of the Islamist-rooted government.
鈥淚 don鈥檛 think that he will be implementing that 鈥� sending Armenians working here back to Armenia,鈥� says Candar. 鈥淏ut it is a signal sent to Armenia to deter them from supporting [such] genocide resolutions out loud.鈥�
Erdogan was explicit on that point in the interview. 鈥淎rmenia has an important decision to make,鈥� he said. 鈥淚t should free itself from its attachments to the diaspora. Any country which cares for Armenia, namely the US, France and Russia, should primarily help Armenia to free itself from the influence of the diaspora.鈥�
