Politics
Turkey's prime minister has threatened to expel thousands of illegal Armenian immigrants after U.S. and Swedish lawmakers passed votes branding World War One-era killings of Armenians by Ottoman Turks as genocide.
Muslim Turkey, a NATO member and candidate to join the European Union, recalled its ambassadors to Washington and Stockholm earlier this month after the non-binding votes and warned they could hurt a fragile effort to reconcile with Christian Armenia after a century of hostility.
Asked about the votes in an interview with the BBC Turkish service that was broadcast late Tuesday, Turkish 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.
"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.
Commentators have said the U.S. vote could affect Washington's use of the Incirlik Air base in southeast Turkey, which provides vital logistical support for U.S. troops going to and from Iraq.
Erdogan's comments met with a stern reaction from Armenia.
"This kind of political statement does not help improve relations between the two states," said Prime Minister Tigran Sarksyan.
"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.
Thousands of illegal Armenian immigrants, mostly women from the impoverished countryside, work as cleaning ladies and in other low-skilled jobs in Istanbul, where many settled after an earthquake in their homeland in 1988.
The exact number of Armenian immigrants in Turkey is unknown. But Turkish-Armenian groups say Turkish politicians inflate numbers of illegal workers and threaten expulsions whenever tensions escalate between Ankara and Yerevan.
Erdogan said Armenian immigrants had been allowed to work in Turkey as a "display of our peaceful approach, but we have to get something in return."
Aris Nalci, an editor at Turkish-Armenian weekly newspaper Agos, said it was not the first time Erdogan had made such remarks. "We are not taking it as a serious threat," he said.
HISTORIC ACCORDS
Muslim Turkey and Christian Armenia signed historic accords last year to establish diplomatic ties and open their border.
But the deal has yet to be ratified by their respective parliaments and the governments have accused each other of trying to rewrite the texts. Erdogan's comments could further strain the process of normalizing ties that have been burdened by the deportation and killing of Armenians during the chaotic end of the Ottoman empire nearly a century ago.
Sarksyan said the issue of illegal immigrants should be solved through diplomacy and for that to happen the two countries should normalize relations.
The deportation threats will be frowned upon by European governments that have voiced support for Turkey's EU bid, and have backed the peace accords with Armenia.
Suat Kiniklioglu, foreign affairs spokesman for the ruling AK Party, played down Erdogan's words, saying the premier felt the need to "remind the public" about Armenians living illegally in Turkey. He said Erdogan was "not talking about something that would happen today or tomorrow."
In the interview, Erdogan accused the Armenian diaspora of pushing the resolutions in the United States and Sweden and called on Armenia and other foreign governments to avoid being swayed by their lobbying. The U.S. and Swedish governments opposed the resolutions, which passed by extremely thin margins.
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.
Sweden's parliament narrowly approved a resolution Thursday recognizing the 1915 mass killing of Armenians in Turkey as genocide.
Swedish news agency TT said Turkey recalled its ambassador from Sweden to protest the surprise decision, which was taken in a 131-130 vote in the 349-seat assembly. Eighty-eight lawmakers were absent during the vote.
"After 95 years it is time for people who have suffered so long to obtain redress," said Gulan Avci, a Liberal Party lawmaker who broke with her party's line and voted to recognize the Armenian genocide. Avci is a Kurdish immigrant from Turkey.
Historians estimate that up to 1.5 million Armenians were killed by Ottoman Turks around the time of World War I. Turkey denies that the deaths constituted genocide, saying the toll has been inflated and those killed were victims of civil war and unrest.
The governing center-right coalition opposed the measure but it passed because a handful of center-right lawmakers sided with the left-leaning opposition, which had proposed the resolution.
In the U.S., a congressional committee approved a similar resolution last week in a 23-22 vote that would send the measure to the full House of Representatives, if the leadership decided to bring it up. Minutes after the vote, Turkey withdrew its ambassador to the U.S.
Swedish Foreign Minister Carl Bildt said he regretted the Parliament's decision, saying it "will unfortunately not have a positive effect on the ongoing normalization process between Turkey and Armenia."
Turkish Ambassador to Sweden Zergun Koroturk told TT she had received instructions to go back to Turkey immediately after the vote.
"It's logical," she was quoted as saying.
Source: Associated Press, 2010
After weeks of planning and a personal invitation from British Royal's, Armenia's President Serge Sargsyan and Catholicos of All Armenians Karekin II attended an unprecedented Armenian fundraising event hosted by Prince Charles at the Windsor Castle on February 10.
Earlier the same day, President Sargsyan was received by Queen Elizabeth II at the Buckingham Palace. At his residence in London, President Sargsyan received the Foreign Minister of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland David Miliband. The sides discussed issues related to British-Armenian relations and regional security. Serzh Sargsyan noted that Armenia attaches great importance to further deepening of political dialogue with Great Britain and the development of trade relations and is interested in broadening the partnership in different directions.
The sides expressed confidence that the EU Eastern Partnership initiative opens a broad framework for the development of cooperation in bilateral and multilateral formats. The President of the Republic of Armenia expressed gratitude to the government of the United Kingdom for support to Armenia since independence.
During his London trip, Pres. Sargsyan also attended the opening of Arshile Gorky exhibit at Tate Modern museum, met with British Foreign Minister David Miliband and spoke at Chatham House.
Speaking at the Chatham House, also known as the Royal Institute of International Affairs, President Sargsyan spoke about the hardships Karabakh Armenians faced in the early 1990s.
"Over 20 years ago in Karabakh, a whole people found themselves facing the threat of extermination only because of being Armenian and wanting to live free," the president stressed as he discussed the conflict that is "a vital cause for the Armenian people [and] a problem that has inflicted unspeakable pain and losses to my people."
He noted the importance of finding solutions to the conflict "the implementation of which will not lead to further displacement and ethnic cleansing" and the impossibility of Karabakh's "colonization" by Azerbaijan.
Mr. Sargsyan also pointed to the dangerous military build-up by Azerbaijan and the Western states' share of responsibility for making it happen.
"While spending large sums on purchases of oil, the advanced states, in my opinion, cannot remain indifferent to how their moneys are being spent," the president warned. "Even if not used in a war against Karabakh, the weapons Azerbaijan is stockpiling today will shoot somewhere."
In his Chatham House speech, Pres. Sargsyan noted that he would be formally transmitting the protocols on normalization of relations with Turkey to parliament for ratification. But he also reiterated the position that Armenia would wait for the Turkish parliament to ratify first.
While flying over Turkish territory on his way to the United Kingdom Pres. Sargsyan sent a message to Turkish president Abdullah Gul calling on him to take a "decisive step forward" to normalize relations.
In his response, the Turkish president reiterated his commitment to normalization, but made no specific commitments regarding ratification of the protocols. Turkish leaders have ruled out ratification without what they would judge to be progress over Karabakh.
In London, Pres. Sargsyan said that a successful completion of Armenia-Turkey normalization process would positively contribute to the Karabakh peace process and that he would invite Azerbaijan's President Ilham Aliyev "to a potential opening ceremony of the Armenian-Turkish border."
According to the London-based Eurasia House, a think tank led by former Armenian Prime Minister Armen Sarkissian, the Windsor Castle fundraising event was dedicated to preservation and renovation of four historic buildings in Yerevan, a project dubbed "Yerevan my love," as well as an 18th century Dumphries House in Scotland.
"Our goal is to preserve historically significant architectural and cultural heritage and to engender urban development that focuses on community building," Mr. Sarkissian explained in a press release.
Mr. Sarkissian, who has been working closely with Prince Charles and his charities, was the event's initiator.
While there have been no reports about funds pledges at press time, the evening was due to begin with a classical concert featuring Valery Gergiev, general director of Russia's Mariinsky Theatre and principal conductor of the London Symphony Orchestra, Dariga Nazarbayeva, mezzo-soprano and influential political figure in Kazakhstan, Mikhail Simonyan, a New York-based violinist, and the London Philharmonia conducted by Sergey Smbatyan of the National Youth Orchestra of Armenia.
According to the Eurasia House, the "Yerevan My Love" project involves the reconstruction and restoration of four historically and architecturally significant buildings: two of them in Yerevan's Kond district and two in the city center.
Once completed and fully furnished, one of the Kond buildings will be used to house a kindergarten for deaf and mute children and youth from socially deprived families and the other will serve as a center for single mothers with children.
The other two buildings in Yerevan city center will become a school for the study of ethnographic instruments for socially and economically deprived children and youth. The school will be run by master duduk player Jivan Gasparyan.
The reconstructed buildings and the programs housed in them will be put under administration and management of the Armenian Church.
Sources: Armenian Reporter
The Swedish Parliament is preparing to vote on a motion that describes the planned annihilation between 1915-1923 of Armenians, Assyrians and Chaldeans by the Ottoman Turkish government as Genocide. The news comes a week after a group of Turkish politicians was in Sweden on an official visit last week. The delegation included the chair of Turkey’s Parliamentary Foreign Affairs Committee, and deputies from the Republican People’s party and the Nationalist Movement Party. According to Today’s Zaman, the group warned Swedish authorities that voting on the motion would damage bilateral relations and torpedo Ankara’s efforts to normalize ties with Yerevan.
The move is worrying officials Ankara, which has also made no secret of its opposition to a similar vote scheduled for March 3 by the Foreign Relations committee of the US House of Representatives.
Source: Today's Zaman, Asbarez
A small contingent of Armenian troops arrived in Afghanistan on Sunday to help the United States and its NATO allies fight the Taliban insurgency, according to the Armenian military.
A 40-strong detachment reached their place of deployment in the northern Afghan city of Kunduz where Armenian peacekeepers will serve under German command as part of the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF).
The main mission of the Armenian troops in Kunduz will be to protect the runway and other facilities of a local airport jointly with Germany forces.
The Armenian troops arrived in Afghanistan from Germany where they had a training course before the main dispatch.
A report issued by the Information and Public Relations Department of the Defense Ministry of Armenia says that the main task of the Armenian peacekeeping detachment in Afghanistan in the coming week will be to settle down in the new location and solve issues connected with the rear.
According to the same report, a group of officers on Tuesday will visit the airport in Kunduz where they will study the locality and learn their assignment.
In the past Armenia had limited contingents participating in international peacekeeping operations in Kosovo and Iraq.
Source: Asbarez Armenian News
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