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Turkish PM threatens to expel Armenians amid genocide row

Mar 17, 2010, 10:44 GMT

Turkey\'s Ambassador to Stockholm, Zergun Koruturk, poses for photographers between a Turkish flag and a portrait of Kemal Ataturk at the embassy in Stockholm, Sweden, 11 March 2010. EPA/FREDRIK PERSSON

Istanbul - Turkey's prime minister has threatened to expel thousands of illegal alien Armenians amid escalating tension over the alleged genocide of Armenians in the Ottoman era, Turkish media reported Wednesday.

In excerpts from an interview with the BBC's Turkish-language service, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said the presence of an estimated 100,000 Armenians currently working without a permit in Turkey may no longer be tolerated.

'So what will I do tomorrow? If necessary, I will tell them 'come on, back to your country.' I'm not obliged to keep them in my country,' he said.

Erdogan said recent decisions by the Swedish parliament and by a US House of Representatives committee to recognize the World War I mass killings as genocide could have an adverse effect on relations between Turkey and Armenia.

Armenia and Turkey are currently working to restore their diplomatic relations. But Ankara has warned that efforts to tie it with the genocide claim could further damage the already troubled reconciliation process with Yerevan.

Turkey has recalled its ambassadors to the US and Sweden after the recent votes in those countries.

Ankara recalled its ambassador to Canada last year after Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper referred to the genocide.

Armenians claim that up to 1.5 million of their people were murdered during World War I. Turkey rejects the genocide claim, saying the number of Armenians killed was much lower and that the deaths were the result of violence that also affected other ethnic groups at the time.