|
20.03.2010 15:09
 More than 100 protestors took to the streets of Istanbul Friday, accusing Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan of racism over his threat to deport illegal Armenian workers.
Between 100-150 demonstrators marched along the Istiklal Avenue, the main commercial street on the European side of the city, carrying banners with the inscription "You are not Alone" in Turkish, English, Armenian and Kurdish, the Hurriyet Daily News reports.
"Tayyip should be deported! A world without nations, borders and classes," chanted the demonstrators gathered at the call of a non-governmental organization campaigning for immigrants' rights.
A statement, distributed to the press, accused Erdogan of treating Armenian immigrants as a pawn in Ankara's protests against some foreign parliament's recognition of Armenian claims of genocide by Ottoman Turks.
"We strongly condemn Erdogan... and those who share his racist and discriminatory mentality," the statement added. The demonstration ended peacefully.
In comments criticized at home and abroad, Erdogan said his government could expel thousands of illegal Armenian workers if foreign parliaments continue to pass votes branding the World War I-era massacres of Armenians as genocide.
|
