Erdogan names expelling of minorities fascist actions

PanARMENIAN.Net - Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan's recent speech on the historical events of expelling ethnic identities out of Turkey, which he defined as a fascist act, is seen as a significant step by some commentators. However, the community members want to see action.



It was fascistic to expel ethnic identities out of the country, Turkey's prime minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said at the annual congress of the Justice and Development Party held in the western province of Düzce.



According to the Hürriyet Daily News Turkish news paper, Erdoğan's speech on Saturday was a historic one, as it was the first time a high official accepted that there have been unlawful and undemocratic practices against minorities in the past.



Erdoğan's speech is seen as a reference to the Sept. 6 and 7 events in Istanbul in 1955 when many Greek shops and houses were pillaged by crowds after false news reported that Turkey's founder Mustafa Kemal Atatürk's house in the Thessaloniki neighborhood of Greece was burnt down. After the pogrom, many Greek people who were born and lived in Istanbul had to leave the city.



Kezban Hatemi, a lawyer, told the Hürriyet Daily News & Economic Review that the country lost its glamour after the events of Sept. 6 and 7 adding: "The prime minister's speech reveals that they [the government] are showing an effort in removing the obstacles in front of democracy."



Words alone do not solve the current problems the communities face in Turkey, according to Mihail Vasiliadis, editor-in-chief of the Apoyevmatini, a Greek-language Istanbul newspaper. . "I have heard things like that before and have gotten excited, but now the continuation of those speeches should come," said Vasiliadis.



Cengiz Aktar, a columnist at the Hürrıyet Daily News & Economic Review, said it was important to mention the discrimination and assimilation committed against ethnic identities, especially during the first eras of the Turkish Republic. "However, even the laws to protect the ethnic identities are not applied in reality.



Meanwhile, opposition parties reacted to Erdoğan's speech. Onur Öymen, vice president of the main opposition Republican People's Party, or CHP, said associating Turkey's history with terms like fascism through hearsay information is not right.