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Turkey's PM tells Romans all citizens "equal"

15 March 2010 [10:39] - TODAY.AZ
Erdogan said this was the first time Roman citizens were taken as interlocutor by the Turkish government.
The Turkish prime minister said on Sunday that problems of all citizens were the problems of the state, Anadolu news agency said.

Turkey's Premier Recep Tayyip Erdogan said that there was no discrimination among Turkish, Kurdish, Laz, Circassian, Roman (Gypsy), Georgian, Bosnian and Albanian people.

"Problems of all citizens living in Turkey are the problems of the Republic," Erdogan said during a meeting with Roman (Gypsy) people in Istanbul.

Erdogan said the territories of Turkey had embraced the oppressed, excluded and displaced people throughout history.

People of different religions, beliefs, colors and ethnic origin had lived together in peace and tolerance on the Anatolian soils for thousands of years, Erdogan said.

"Our territories have never witnessed racism, or let Anti-Semitism, and intolerance can no way exist on these lands," Erdogan also said.

Erdogan said the government amended in 2006 the housing law that included discriminative expressions against Roman (Gypsy) citizens, and also erased a discriminative expression in police by-laws the same year.

The government had convened a Roman (Gypsy) workshop in December 2009, and representatives of five federations and 80 associations from 36 provinces participated in the workshop, he said.

Erdogan said this was the first time Roman (Gypsy) citizens were taken as interlocutor by the Turkish government.

Also, Erdogan said the government had launched initiatives with the Housing Development Administration of Turkey (TOKI) to make Roman (Gypsy) citizens own houses in 20 installments without a down payment.

Erdogan said the government would start delivering the houses within a year and 16 months.


/World Bulletin/ 
URL: http://www.today.az/news/regions/63970.html

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