Erdogan, the prime minister of Turkey, stated that he had been misunderstood. He spoke not on Armenians in Turkey in general, but on deporting those Armenians who were in the country illegally. We understood him quite well the first time. The Turkish prime minister suggested a discriminatory implementation of the law, based on ethnicity. If the authorities of Turkey mentioned that it was decided to deport all illegal migrants from the country, that would have been reasonable. Although it wouldn’t have been acceptable, it would nevertheless have been understandable. But the prime minister of Turkey spoke only of deporting Armenians. That is to say, the illegal Georgian, the Caucasian Tatar (known as the Azerbaijanis today), Arab or Russian would continue to enjoy the right of breaking the law, but not the Armenian. And how would the Turks have treated the ethnic Armenians who were citizens of Georgia or Russia? They would deport the Armenians with Georgian passports, but not the citizens of Georgia who are Caucasian Tatar or Georgian in origin? It would have been interesting to see the Georgian response. In the 21st century, the mouth of a top-ranking official of the executive of a state aspiring towards the European Union issues words which call upon implementing the law on people not in accordance with what those people have done, but on their ethnicity. This is a serious matter. This is utterly in violation of Articles 1, 7 and 16.1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948). I am almost sure that current Turkey will not initiate new discriminatory state policies of suffering on Armenians. That would not be in line with Turkey’s interests at the moment. Ethnic and religious minorities in Turkey are anyway in dire straits, facing unjustified limitations. Nevertheless, this is a very worrisome event, as what Erdogan said is a manifestation of a very serious and profound illness of Turkish society. Erdogan expresses with his tongue what is in the heart of Turkish society. Ara Papian Head of the Modus Vivendi Centre 19 March, 2010