Erdogan accuses media of distortion of claim to expel Armenians

Turkey’s Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has accused media of distortion of his statement to expel Armenians, that he made after U.S. and Swedish lawmakers passed votes branding World War One-era killings of Armenians by Turks as genocide.

Erdogan said Friday that media had got him wrong as he hadn’t threatened to expel all Armenians from Turkey. He stressed that he had said of only undocumented Armenians, illegally loving in Turkey.

When asked Tuesday about the votes in an interview with BBC, Turkish Prime Minister said: “There are currently 170,000 Armenians living in our country. Only 70,000 of them are Turkish citizens, but we are tolerating the remaining 100,000. If necessary, I may have to tell these 100,000 to go back to their country because they are not my citizens.”