Recep Tayyip Erdogan told the BBC that of 170,000 Armenians living in Turkey "70,000 are Turkish citizens".
"We are turning a blind eye to the remaining 100,000... Tomorrow, I may tell these 100,000 to go back to their country, if it becomes necessary."
Thousands of Armenians, many of them women, work illegally in Turkey. Most do low-skilled jobs such as cleaning.
Of course, all he is really doing is threatening to follow the law if he doesn't get his way...
I think the real problem is that Turkey was making clear progress and by backing him into a corner, he has been forced to defend his position to hard liners by making this kind of threat (and potentially following it through). Probably a lesson in diplomacy here...
*MySmiley*
Robert Graves "There is no money in poetry, but then there is no poetry in money, either."
Henning Mankell "We must defend the open society, because if we start locking our doors, if we let fear decide, the person who committed the act of terror will win"
Robert Graves "There is no money in poetry, but then there is no poetry in money, either."
Henning Mankell "We must defend the open society, because if we start locking our doors, if we let fear decide, the person who committed the act of terror will win"
Turkey threatens to expel 100,000 Armenians
- 17/03/2010 05:10:26 PM
984 Views
Why not let sleeping dogs lie?
- 17/03/2010 05:22:34 PM
456 Views
Erdogan is the Middle East's Chavez. *NM*
- 17/03/2010 06:38:00 PM
211 Views
I think Lieberman has the better claim there. *NM*
- 18/03/2010 03:39:29 AM
183 Views
Hardly. Lieberman makes sense
- 18/03/2010 05:34:43 PM
368 Views
I've read some articles saying otherwise.
- 18/03/2010 05:49:52 PM
422 Views
Torpedoing Biden's mission ? What a sad joke.
- 18/03/2010 06:22:37 PM
375 Views
Would you like to call it something else?
- 18/03/2010 06:26:34 PM
421 Views
Because Obama was looking for a way to get offended
- 18/03/2010 06:54:55 PM
568 Views
Your problem is that a "settlement freeze" doesn't impress anyone at all.
- 18/03/2010 07:16:55 PM
377 Views
Maybe we should just ask the Palestinians if we can keep Tel Aviv ?
- 18/03/2010 07:44:07 PM
358 Views
If you want anyone to be impressed, yes.
- 18/03/2010 09:03:11 PM
342 Views
How is it too much when there is a freeze ?
- 18/03/2010 09:22:03 PM
412 Views
You call this a freeze?
- 18/03/2010 09:43:52 PM
459 Views
Not your sourness silly. Obama's
- 18/03/2010 10:15:56 PM
388 Views
How long are supposed to stop building for?
- 18/03/2010 09:32:58 PM
361 Views
How about permanently? 
- 18/03/2010 09:50:46 PM
421 Views
- 18/03/2010 09:50:46 PM
421 Views
I don't think i agree that the condidtions for peace or that well known
- 19/03/2010 04:32:37 AM
338 Views
Major conditions
- 19/03/2010 09:59:37 AM
387 Views
Re: Major conditions
- 19/03/2010 01:26:54 PM
397 Views
Seriously, what conflict are you looking at?
- 19/03/2010 01:56:24 PM
543 Views
Re: Seriously, what conflict are you looking at?
- 19/03/2010 04:47:07 PM
376 Views
Ah, good point there... I was kinda thinking of the West.
- 19/03/2010 08:31:11 PM
407 Views
- 19/03/2010 08:31:11 PM
407 Views
well I wasn't talking about how anyone treated but who was making the decisions
- 19/03/2010 09:24:47 PM
451 Views
That really isn't a very useful observation at this point, though.
- 19/03/2010 09:32:30 PM
356 Views
Man, your analysis is weird
- 20/03/2010 11:24:40 AM
654 Views
I'm a bit confused what you're saying exactly...
- 20/03/2010 04:10:14 PM
401 Views
How so ?
- 20/03/2010 11:04:30 PM
346 Views
They don't exactly have much that they *can* give up.
- 19/03/2010 10:46:35 AM
409 Views
I don't want them to give up anything more then the violience
- 19/03/2010 01:55:51 PM
405 Views
That's simple enough: Israel is a first world state.
- 19/03/2010 02:13:17 PM
370 Views
It is pretty crude
- 17/03/2010 11:15:28 PM
457 Views
Why is recognizing a 100-year-old evil in his country's past "backing him into a corner"????
- 18/03/2010 11:41:05 AM
417 Views
The guy who has managed to face down one military coup from a sector that doesn't want it admitted?
- 18/03/2010 12:39:46 PM
487 Views
Why is it so hard for you people to see that the AKP are the "good guys" in Turkey?
- 18/03/2010 01:44:13 PM
368 Views
There are no "good guys" in Turkey, at least not in the government.
- 18/03/2010 01:57:44 PM
355 Views
Equating the two is ridiculous.
- 18/03/2010 02:13:37 PM
562 Views
My issues are not with a lack of democracy and I don't equate the AKP and the military
- 18/03/2010 02:35:00 PM
485 Views
So they respond to claims of genocide with threats of ethnic cleansing? Terrible. Just terrible.
- 18/03/2010 11:39:31 AM
393 Views
I agree. What they are doing now only makes things worse for them
- 18/03/2010 08:48:25 PM
325 Views