SOHR: Syrian Refugees Become Bargaining Chips in Turkish Elections

The issue of Syrian refugees has turned into a bargaining chip between Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s Justice and Development Party and the opposition parties ahead of parliamentary and presidential elections scheduled for June 2023.

 

Erdogan confirmed on Saturday that his country would continue to keep its doors open to Syrian refugees.

 

During a televised interview, he pledged that he would not allow Syrian refugees to be expelled from the country as long as he is president.

 

Several Turkish opposition leaders had reiterated their pledges to return Syrians to their country if they win the elections.

 

Erdogan attacked opposition leader and chair of the Republican People’s Party (CHP), Kemal Kilicdaroglu, who stressed that his party would end the problem of Syrian refugees within months of taking power in Turkey.

 

“The opposition parties have recently taken a position against the Syrians, and they say ‘when we come to power, we will send these Syrians to their country’,” Erdogan said, adding: “We are now hosting nearly four million Syrians in our country, and with those coming from Iraq, the total number is five million, and we will continue to host them.”

 

“They are all our guests and did not leave their countries on their own. They have left their country because they did not find a chance to live in it, and of course, we opened our doors to them and continue to host them,” he said.

 

Meanwhile, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights announced that 400 fighters of National Army factions operating in the de-escalation zone, escorted by Turkish soldiers, have undergone training on the use of Turkish-made armored and tracked military vehicles, including tanks, at the al-Mastoumah camp in Syria’s Idlib province.

 

This is the first time that Syrian fighters undergo such training.

 

Turkish forces had trained 200 Syrian fighters to use various anti-armor weapons.

 

 

SOURCE: Asharq Al-Awsat