French leader Nicolas Sarkozy should worry more about tackling his country’s economic problems rather than giving advice to Turkey, Turkish Economy Minister Zafer Çağlayan has said in reference to the president’s recent comments in Armenia.
“Sarkozy should sort out the French economy first,” Çağlayan said while speaking at the World Turkish Business Council (DTIK) meeting organized by the Foreign Economic Relations Board of Turkey (DEİK).
“He will have to defend himself before the French people for spending their savings to save Greece from sinking,” he said.
The French president previously said “everybody must have the courage to call the 1915 events a genocide,” in Yerevan on Oct. 5 while addressing Armenian media during his Caucasus tour.
His statement was a reference to the historic dispute between Armenia and Turkey. Armenia claims up to 1.5 million Armenians were systematically killed in 1915 under the rule of the Ottoman Empire. Turkey denies this, saying any deaths were the result of civil strife that erupted when Armenians took up arms for independence in eastern Anatolia.
Claiming that Sarkozy’s statements stemmed from domestic political considerations, the Turkish minister said there were 500,000 Armenian people living in France “but they also have nearly 500,000 Turkish people living there, too.”
The Armenians living in France are much more integrated with the French economy than the Turkish diaspora, Çağlayan said. There are approximately 6 million Turks living in Europe.
Strength from the Turkish diaspora
He said the millions of Turkish citizens who mostly immigrated to European countries in 1960s have turned into employers now running over 150,000 enterprises and posting nearly $50 billion in revenue annually.
“We are used to using the word ‘diaspora’ negatively,” said Çağlayan, noting that more and more Turkish businessmen who immigrated abroad years ago are now looking for ways to join forces and invest in Turkey.
The DTIK aims to gather 2,000 Turkish businessmen living abroad. Representatives of the DTIK have so far visited Amsterdam and Frankfurt and will visit New York tomorrow, followed by Dubai on Oct. 24 and London on Oct. 31, said Rona Yırcalı, board chairman of the group.
Muhtar Kent, the chief executive and president of the Coca-Cola Company, will chair the World Turkish Business Council as the head of the DTIK’s high advisory committee.
Rifat Hisarcıklıoğlu, the chairman of the Union of Turkish Chambers & Commodity Exchange (TOBB), said during the event that nearly 6 million Jews living abroad have traditionally played an important role in the United States’ internal and foreign policies.
“Now Turkey can well do the same by combining the forces of the Turkish diaspora and lobbying for Turkey,” said Hisarcıklıoğlu.
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