Turkey Angered by Petition On White House Website
A petition on the White House website calling for Turkey to open its borders to Armenian-Syrian refugees has provoked a reaction from the Turkish Foreign Ministry as the Syrian crisis now appears linked to other issues in US-Turkey-Armenia relations.
On Jan. 5, a petition appeared on the White House website calling on the government of Turkey to open its border with Armenia for refugees from Syria.
"The road from Syria to Armenia goes through Turkey, which closed its border with Armenia in 1993. It creates a big problem for Armenian refugees," the petition reads. "Thus, we are kindly asking to call Turkey to open the land border with Armenia (at least, for refugees) without any preconditions. There shouldn't be closed borders in the 21st century."
The petition is one of many posted on the White House website on a wide range of issues. "The right to petition the government is guaranteed by the First Amendment of the United States Constitution," the White House explains. "If a petition gets enough support, White House staff will review it, ensure it's sent to the appropriate policy experts and issue an official response."
This petition requires 100,000 signatures by Feb. 4 to be worthy of a White House review, and had only received 708 by the time this article was written.
