Turkish Human Rights Committee Receives Complaint on Erdoğan’s Deportation Threats

Representatives from Turkey’s People’s Democratic Party have sent an official letter to the Human Rights Committee in Turkey’s Grand National Assembly in relation to a statement by Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan that he would deport illegal Armenian migrants from Turkey if need be, reports local Turkish paper Radikal.

The letter, in part, reads:

“The 100,000 Armenians under discussion, most of whom are women and children, have entered our country through legal or illegal means. Tens of thousands of them have entered Turkey while the Justice and Development Party has been in power.

“For that reason, their staying in the country illegally has been ignored. Instead of prompting a diplomatic fight against Armenia and the Armenian Diaspora on the Armenian Genocide assertions, the prime minister is attempting to achieve something by threatening to deport 100,000 Armenians from Turkey who are in the country and are perhaps hostages, which runs counter to the principles of human rights.

“For that reason we demand confirmation that the prime minister’s statements on and his approach toward Armenians working illegally in our country violate human rights principles.”