Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan criticized the speeches of the Turkish opposition, which promises to deport Syrian refugees from Turkey if it comes to power.
He said during his answer to the questions of young people in the Presidential Council, on Wednesday, May 11, “One of them says that when I come to power, I will send them back to their country, and I will not give these people the opportunity to live in Turkey. Personally, I do not support this opinion, and this would be unfair.”
Erdogan added, “The people of Turkey are 99 percent Muslim, and our Syrian brothers left their country because of the war that broke out, and the terrorist organizations, because of which they struggled between life and death.”
The Turkish president once again touched on the issue of building 100,000 homes in northwestern Syria by charitable institutions and the Turkish state, to facilitate the voluntary return of migrants, pointing out that Syrian refugees are returning to the homes that are being built in the north.
“Some of them obtained Turkish citizenship and succeeded in passing the designated exams, among them a doctor, an engineer, and a lawyer. Is it reasonable for us to expel these people because they are refugees, after they came to Turkey?” Erdogan added in his talk about the Syrian refugees, considering the issue of returning them because they are refugees, an illegal act. Humane, non-sentimental, and not Islamic on top of that.
“We cannot expel them, and if there are troublemakers among them, the security services will hold them accountable for their bad deeds,” according to the Turkish president.
The return of the Syrians is always present
Talks about the issue of Syrian asylum are escalating in more than one direction, so that the file clearly records its presence in the tensions of Turkish internal politics, before the presidential and parliamentary elections on May 14.
The Turkish rapprochement talks with the Syrian regime also dealt with, since their first meetings, what confirms the “voluntary” return of refugees to their country.
The return of the refugees was present in the “Jeddah Statement” and “Amman Statement”, which were issued after Arab ministerial meetings, the second of which came in the presence of the Syrian Foreign Minister, Faisal Al-Miqdad.
In May 2022, the Turkish President announced the preparation of a project that guarantees the return of one million Syrian refugees to northwestern Syria, which is reflected in the construction of 100,000 brick houses in 13 Syrian points, in the cities of Jarabulus, al-Bab, Tal Abyad and Rai al-Ain, in cooperation with the local councils in these areas.
Later, the Turkish Interior Minister announced the completion of the construction of 60,000 of these homes.
Three million 333 thousand and 328 Syrian refugees reside in Turkey, under “temporary protection,” according to the latest statistics of the General Directorate of the Presidency of Turkish Immigration.
