Turkey Threathens to Deport 100,000 Armenians

[Drace]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/8572934.stm

This is getting ridiculous. The was a bill recently in the Washington to officially recognize the Turkish massacre of up 1.5 million Armenians during WW1 as genocide. When the House of Representatives voted in favor of condemning the acts as "genocide" Turkey immediately recalled its US ambassador. The US politicians though seem to be very against the bill as it would ruin relations with Turkey, which is essential in their war in the Middle East.

Moreover, there has been negotiations with Armenia and Turkey to normalize relations by opening the border for trade along with other specific actions listed in the protocols. The Armenian community has very much rejected the protocols and the Armenian president for signing it.

So this conflict between Armenia and Turkey has been carried out for over 95 years now, with Turkey denying that the mass deportations and massacres were not systematic and shouldn't be called genocide.

It seems though relations have only became worse with Turkey's minister threatening to deport the whole of the Armenian population living in Turkey.

[Buffalo Souljah]

The denial of the Armenian genocide by the Turkish electorate is an embarassment I should hope history will render obsolete....

[Devrim]

On a wholly practical point what Tayyip was threatening to do was to expel illegal immigrants. He may not have noticed, but the state already expels illegal immigrants anyway. A Romanian friend of mine was expelled earlier this year for example. Also, it is quite difficult to find illegal immigrants to expel them as they are not legal, and therefore tend not to be registered. Could the police crack down more against Armenians? Probably yes, but the idea that they could expel all of the illegal Armenian immigrants is absurd.

Nasty Turkish nationalism yet again? Certainly.

In any way practical? Certainly not.

More a case of Tayyip speaking before thinking again.

Devrim

[Devrim]

The denial of the Armenian genocide by the Turkish electorate is an embarassment I should hope history will render obsolete....

The electorate doesn't deny it. The state does. If it were put to the electorate they would almost certainly vote to deny it, but it is a really strange way to phrase it.

Devrim

[Leonid Brozhnev]

I'm sure all the Armenian people want is for Turkey to dish out what little justice there is left... the Empire is long gone, the perpetrators are long dead, what exactly does the Turkish state have to lose for acknowledging the Armenian genocide besides pride?

[Drace]

On a wholly practical point what Tayyip was threatening to do was to expel illegal immigrants. He may not have noticed, but the state already expels illegal immigrants anyway. A Romanian friend of mine was expelled earlier this year for example. Also, it is quite difficult to find illegal immigrants to expel them as they are not legal, and therefore tend not to be registered. Could the police crack down more against Armenians? Probably yes, but the idea that they could expel all of the illegal Armenian immigrants is absurd.

Nasty Turkish nationalism yet again? Certainly.

In any way practical? Certainly not.

More a case of Tayyip speaking before thinking again.Well if they manage to commit a genocide I don't believe deporting a few thousand more Armenians should be difficult. I think the US could similarly deport its illegal immigrants pretty easily.

But certainly, I think its just more of a threat than something on the "to do list", however, I am more interested in the renewed tensions between the states.


I'm sure all the Armenian people want is for Turkey to dish out what little justice there is left... the Empire is long gone, the perpetrators are long dead, what exactly does the Turkish state have to lose for acknowledging the Armenian genocide besides pride?Well nationalism itself explains denying. But it may have to be forced into reparations and returning land taken from Armenia. Although, I am not sure if the political aspect of it concerns the Armenian people. They too, are driven by nationalism in strongly protesting against the Turkish government

[piet11111]

I hope turkey realizes that expelling 100.000 Armenians just for being Armenian is also considered ethnic cleansing no matter if it happens with silk gloves.

[Devrim]

Well if they manage to commit a genocide I don't believe deporting a few thousand more Armenians should be difficult. I think the US could similarly deport its illegal immigrants pretty easily.

But certainly, I think its just more of a threat than something on the "to do list",

I don't think that it is as easy as you say and 100,000 thousand isn't a 'few'. I also think that the role that illegal labour plays in the economy is very important, and can't just be dispensed with at will.


however, I am more interested in the renewed tensions between the states.

Turkey is becoming more and more anti-American. This is a country where best-selling novels can end with a Turkish agent blowing up New York with a small nuke, and people openly fantasise about a military confrontation with the US. The highest grossing Turkish film every depicts this sort of scenario.

Turkey has two gripes with the US. The main one is the Kurdish issue, but the second is the possibility that the US may recognise the genocide.


I'm sure all the Armenian people want is for Turkey to dish out what little justice there is left... the Empire is long gone, the perpetrators are long dead, what exactly does the Turkish state have to lose for acknowledging the Armenian genocide besides pride?

In my personal opinion it is connected to the extreme nationalism in this country anyway, but also to do with the fact that if there was a genocide, Mustafa Kemal, the founder of the Turkish republic and secular god of the Turkish state would logically be implicated in mass murder.


Well nationalism itself explains denying. But it may have to be forced into reparations and returning land taken from Armenia. Although, I am not sure if the political aspect of it concerns the Armenian people. They too, are driven by nationalism in strongly protesting against the Turkish government

Turkish nationalists do say this, but as I understand it the UN charter explicitly rejects altering the post 1945 boarders due to historical claims.

Devrim