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UNCLAS ISTANBUL 000929 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SENSITIVE 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PHUM PGOV TU AM
SUBJECT: REPORTS OF AGR-LINKED ILLEGAL MIGRANT DEPORTATIONS 
IN TURKEY DISPELLED 
 
¶1.  (SBU) Summary and comment.  Turkish-Armenian contacts 
representing business, religious and intellectual communities 
dispelled reports on a pan-Armenian web site suggesting that 
the Turkish government had detained approximately 100 illegal 
Armenian migrants in retaliation for the U.S. House Foreign 
Affairs Committee (HFAC) approval of the Armenian genocide 
resolution (AGR).  One contact acknowledged unofficial 
reports of the detention of 50-60 illegal Armenian migrants 
but stated these individuals had been arrested four days 
prior to the HFAC vote.  Some 70 thousand illegal Armenians 
reside in Turkey.  Broad-based speculation on ways in which 
the Turkish Government might react if AGR passes in the full 
House extends to them as well.  There is no indication that 
reports of current detentions, if true, are anything more 
than the unfortunate, coincidental timing of normal 
crack-down operations against illegal migrants in the same 
week as the HFAC vote on the AGR.  End summary and comment. 
 
¶2.  (SBU) The independent Pan-Armenian Network NGO reported 
via its website panarmenian.net on October 15 that the 
Government of Turkey (GOT) had begun arresting Armenian 
citizens in retaliation for the October 10 HFAC approval of 
the AGR.  The report cited an Irish Times article which 
allegedly stated some 100 illegal Armenian migrants had been 
detained in Turkey for subsequent deportation to their 
homeland and that "their deportation is viewed as revenge to 
adoption of the Armenian genocide resolution by the U.S. 
House Foreign Affairs Committee."  The website further quoted 
Armenia's representative to the Istanbul-based Black Sea 
Economic Cooperation Karen Mirzoyan as having confirmed that 
Armenian citizens are being arrested in Turkey "with a 
purpose of deportation over violation of visa regime." 
Mirzoyan later told us he had been contacted by Radio liberty 
last week and was asked about the reported detentions, but 
noted he had no official information from his government 
related to the arrests.  He indicated that the reported 
detentions were of illegal workers and unrelated to the AGR. 
He thanked us for our interest and committed to alert us if 
he becomes aware of any retaliatory acts against Armenian 
nationals as a result of the AGR. 
 
¶3.  (SBU) Luiz Bakar, an attorney for Armenian Patriarch of 
Turkey Mesrob II, told us on October 15 that she had heard 
unofficial reports that 50-60 illegal Armenian migrants were 
arrested on October 6 (four days prior to the HFAC vote) and 
were awaiting deportation in an Istanbul jail for foreigners. 
 Bakar personally knew two Iranian Armenians who were facing 
deportation but there was nothing to suggest these actions 
were related to the HFAC vote, she said.  Meanwhile the 
editor-in-chief of the Turkish-Armenian weekly newspaper 
Agos, Etyen Mahcupyan, told us that he had not heard of any 
arrests and deportations of illegal Armenian migrants. 
Another Agos contact explained the government had begun 
detaining and deporting a few of Turkey's 70 thousand illegal 
Armenian migrants this summer but that these actions were not 
linked to the AGR.  Nergis Ozturk, coordinator of 
Turkey-Armenia Business Development Council gave a similar 
account, stating her investigations revealed no Armenians on 
deck for deportation and that the recent crack-downs were 
non-discriminatory, applying to Armenians as much as any 
other foreigner in an illegal status in Turkey. 
WIENER