Costa and Schiff Condemn Turkey’s Threat To Deport Armenians

ANCA Disappointed in State Department Response to Ankara’s Warning

WASHINGTON–Congressmen Jim Costa (D-Calif.) and Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) have spoken out forcefully against Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s chilling warning – clearly intended to intimidate Armenia by raising the specter of 1915 – that Ankara may respond to international recognition of the Armenian Genocide by launching a new wave of deportations of Armenians living in Turkey, reported the Armenian National Committee of America (ANCA).

“Prime Minister Erdogan’s cruel threat to expel Armenians from Turkey as punishment for the House Foreign Affairs Committee’s recent markup of my Armenian Genocide commemoration resolution is the latest example of a longstanding policy of using Armenians as ‘human shields’ in Ankara’s campaign of genocide denial,” said Congressman Schiff, the lead author of the Armenian Genocide Resolution. “Ninety-five years after Ottoman troops forced marched hundreds of thousands of Armenians through the desert and to their deaths, Erdogan’s comments add a new measure of cruelty towards the survivors and their families.”

“Turkey’s threat of deportation against Armenian migrants, whether documented or undocumented, is irresponsible, especially considering that Armenia-Turkey relations continue to be haunted by the Armenian Genocide,” said Congressman Costa, a leading member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee.

“Congressman Costa and Schiff’s powerful and principled comments condemning Prime Minister Erdogan’s threats to deport Armenians stand in sharp contrast to the State Department’s strained and, frankly implausible, efforts to somehow dismiss Ankara’s chilling warnings as a simple immigration issue,” said Aram Hamparian, Executive Director of the ANCA. “Erdogan’s comments were clear, as was his obvious intention to use the specter of 1915 to intimidate the Armenian people.”

Earlier today, noted columnist Christopher Hitchens explained that Erdogan’s threat was akin to the Turkish leader saying: “If democratic assemblies dare to mention the ethnic cleansing of Armenians in the 20th century, I will personally complete that cleansing in the 21st!” He was also sharply critical of the U.S. silence in response to this ominous warning.

In recent weeks, the London Times has called Turkey’s threats to expel Armenians “unconscionable” and “shameful,” and The London Daily News noted Turkey was “entering the dark ages mode.”

Below are links to three recent responses in the international media to Erdogan’s threat:

Turkey Denies History
Christopher Hitchens
History News Network
April 5, 2010
http://hnn.us/roundup/entries/125231.html

Uncomfortable Truth: Turkish threats to expel Armenian migrants to make a political point are shameful
The London Times (Editorial) March 18, 2010
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/leading_article/article7066163.ece

Turkey goes into “dark ages mode” following Armenian expulsion threat
The London Daily News (Editorial)
March 18, 2010
http://www.thelondondailynews.com/turkey-goes-into-dark-ages-mode-following-armenian-expulsion-threat-p-3904.html

3 Comments

  1. Yet Turks especially this individual Murat thinks Erdogan is a man enough to stand up and apologize for what he said.. YEAH RIGHT… he does not have the humility, dignity, respect, truthfulness, and purity of a human being with a heart.. He showed his true colors…

    I am not only pissed at Turkey but also at US of A for being silent about this matter.. not only being silent, US tried to downplay what Erdogan said.. I believe it was Gordon who minimized the effect of Erdogan’s threats.. what a pure spineless bought out idiot…

    Hope that the world wakes up and smells the true TUrkey’s scent.. the blood thirsty animal…

    Gayane

  2. Well, why is it the world heard so little, and did even less, when Armenia deported all of the non-Armenians from Armenia to acheive their present day goal of having a 98% national purity rate. What happened to all of those Moslems (Turks, Azeris, etc.) who had been living there? Over 6,000 Armenian citizens flee in a mass exodus each month from Armenia’s severely corrupt government & oppressive religious structure. Many come & settle in Turkey (again, many as illegal aliens). Better to look at your own country before pointing fingers!

  3. Hye, Erodgan’s erratic and vile words tell it all – Turkish leaderships, all,  since the Ottomans and into 21st century – remain with  their Ottoman mentality – still.
    Hence, to this day, a Turkey has not yet been able to join with civilized societies of the world easily, especially  when  Turks approach these societies in their true nature – Turkish bullies.   Yet, bullies, when faced with the strengths of those who will no longer tolerate the bully behavior, at any level, the bully can’t take the heat!  (Just ask you children/grandchildren who too, may have faced the school bully – and learned, not to fear them, but to stand up and the bully folds –  like an emptied  balloon!   
    No doubt, Turks, bullying their way with  all the civilized world yet none has any ‘guts’ to tell the Turks – enough, enough!!  Thus Turks think they are the most
    clever, most intelligent, most world savvy of peoples.  And, oh, never insult the
    Turks – they are very sensitive about being ‘insulted’… Turks cannot accept any that is not, according to them, showing Turkey as enlightened and advanced…
    Yet, the Turks ‘insulted’ the Armenian nation, when Turks  slaughtered men, women, children, raped and gruesome tortures only the Ottoman mentality could devise – wasn’t this an ‘insult’ of Armenians, wasn’t this  ‘insulting’ of all of humanity to eliminate the peoples of the Christian nation of Armenia – Turks for their own convoluted need for lands, took the refined cultures and more of the ancient Armenians – planned the elimination of Armenians via Genocide-not war
    Just think, if Armenia were still the nation that it was and should have been even
    today – what a difference it will have made to the world peace, to Caucasus…
    but destroyed by a Genocide  the brave Turks destroyed a fine ancient
    nation and  sought to eliminate its Christian  people.  (Turks did claim all the fine culutures of the Armenians to be as their own culture – Turks had none)!
    Armenians are creators, Turks know only to bully others, as if this is their due!
    Turkey is ONLY for the Turks…  they must be aiming for their Ottoman days when the Turks were in their (own) glory.  as Turks are spreading across a Europe! Sadly
    Manooshag

    Manooshag

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