48% of Turks agree with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Erdogan, who threatened to deport illegal Armenian immigrants. The Ankara-based research center conducted a poll. Only 34% of the respondents said they are strongly against the Premier’s statement.

Also, 55% of the respondents aged 18-24 are strongly supportive of Erdogan’s statement – they said Armenian immigrants must be deported.

RFE/RL reported that old Turks are more tolerant: only 42% of the respondents over 55 share Erdogan’s opinion, whereas 36% are strongly against.

MetroPoll experts also found out the attitude of the people supportive of certain political parties. Specifically, 56% of the Turks that voted for the ruling Justice and Development Party at the recent local elections would not mind the Government deporting the illegal Armenian immigrants. As regards the supporters of the Nationalist Movement Party, 63% of them are for deportation of Armenians.

Extremist Islamists are strongly against the deportation of Armenian immigrants (56%).

As to the number of illegal Armenian immigrants in Turkey, 26% of the respondents believe the Turkish Premier, 18% said it is within 25%, and 40% of the respondents could not answer the question.

The poll conducted on March 18 involved 1,000 Turkish citizens in 31 cities.

T.P.