US State Department Responds to Erdogan’s Statement on Deporting Armenians

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s statement on deporting Armenians living illegally in Turkey is not a threat, said US Assistant Secretary of State Philip Gordon.

“In my opinion, Prime Minister Erdogan only wanted to highlight that there are 100,000 Armenians living in Turkey illegally. I don’t believe he threatened to deport them from the country. Those are separate issues. Every country has an issue with illegal immigrants and approaches it according to its laws. That has no relation whatsover with any vote in the United States or the House or Representatives. Let’s not search for a connection between the Congress’ activities and that issue,” said Gordon, adding that the US administration would very much like that Turkey’s PM not turn down its invitation to attend the nuclear security summit in Washington in April.

“Erdogan is invited. We have not yet received a formal reply as to who is going to represent Turkey. I would very much like for him to participate,” said Gordon.

Erdogan had told the BBC's Turkish language service on Tuesday that if necessary, Turkey’s authorities could deport Armenians living illegally in Turkey.

“There are 170,000 Armenians in my country, of which 70,000 are my citizens. We’re turning a blind eye to the other 100,000. However, tomorrow, if it becomes necessary, I would say to those 100,000, go back to your country. Why? Because they’re not my citizens; I’m not obliged to keep them in my country,” he was reported as saying.

According to The Wall Street Journal, this is not the first time that Erdogan and other Turkish officials have hinted they could take action against the thousands of Armenians who do mostly menial labor in Turkey without work visas. Officials from the prime minister's ruling Justice and Development party were quick to say Wednesday that no expulsion is imminent.