Turkey may grant citizenship to victims of "deportations, exiles"

January 5, 2016 - 12:40 AMT

PanARMENIAN.Net - Turkey's CHP Vice Chair Sezgin Tanrikulu introduced a legislative proposal to the parliament, envisaging a change in Turkish citizenship law, Agos Weekly reports.

If Tanrikulu’s proposal is accepted, Armenians, Greeks, Syriacs, Jews and Kurds who were "exiled, deported and expatriated" in the last 100 years would acquire citizenship.

Those "expatriated" and still alive can apply personally, while relatives of the deceased expatriated people can apply with old passports, official records from churches, synagogues or other houses of worship, official records from minority foundations or related institutions, papers from Ottoman Empire or records from the migrated country showing that they are from Turkey.

Also, the 1915 Deportation Law is mentioned in the proposal: “The Deportation Law which was put into effect on June 1, 1915 constituted the legal ground for the forced migrations of the time.”

Besides the Deportation Law, the proposal says, Trakya Pogrom, “Speak Turkish” campaign, Wealth Tax, September 6-7 Pogrom and forced migration in 1964 caused people from various ethnic and religious groups to be exiled and thousands of people were expatriated.

The proposal, however, makes no mention of the victims of the genocide against Armenians, Assyrians and Greeks, as well as other events that ultimately led to the "exodus" of various minorities from the Ottoman Empire.

The Armenian Genocide

The Armenian Genocide (1915-23) was the deliberate and systematic destruction of the Armenian population of the Ottoman Empire during and just after World War I. It was characterized by massacres and deportations, involving forced marches under conditions designed to lead to the death of the deportees, with the total number of deaths reaching 1.5 million.

The majority of Armenian Diaspora communities were formed by the Genocide survivors.

Present-day Turkey denies the fact of the Armenian Genocide, justifying the atrocities as “deportation to secure Armenians”. Only a few Turkish intellectuals, including Nobel Prize winner Orhan Pamuk and scholar Taner Akcam, speak openly about the necessity to recognize this crime against humanity.

The Armenian Genocide was recognized by Uruguay, Russia, France, Lithuania, Italy, 45 U.S. states, Greece, Cyprus, Lebanon, Argentina, Belgium, Austria, Wales, Switzerland, Canada, Poland, Venezuela, Chile, Bolivia, the Vatican, Luxembourg, Brazil, Germany, the Netherlands, Paraguay, Sweden, Venezuela, Slovakia, Syria, Vatican, as well as the European Parliament and the World Council of Churches.