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- We stayed and that's enough: Turkey considers returning Syrian refugees to their homeland
We stayed and that's enough: Turkey considers returning Syrian refugees to their homeland
Turkey is thinking about the forced return home of Syrian refugees. The country's parliamentary opposition has already started preparing relevant initiatives. Ozgur Ozel, head of the People's Republican Party (PRP), called for the annulment of the temporary refugee status and the creation of maximum conditions for re-emigration. The opposition considers Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan the main beneficiary of the fall of the regime of Bashar al-Assad and thought about how to use the migration issue against him. Details - in the material of "Izvestia".
Refugees must leave the country
"The Syrian regime no longer exists, Bashar al-Assad is gone, all the reasons [for granting asylum] have disappeared. Refugees must leave our country as soon as possible. We [opposition party representatives] are diametrically opposed to Erdogan on this issue," said Ozgur Özel, chairman of the opposition parliamentary People's Republican Party.
According to him, the HDP has already started preparing its own package of proposals to change Turkey's migration policy. In particular, the opposition's initiative would allow refugees to go to Syria "safely, quickly and never return."
Syrian migrants in Turkey
As a first step, the politician suggested revising the grounds on which citizens of the neighboring country were granted temporary protection status. Ozgur Özel criticized Ankara's migration policy over the past 13 years during which the Syrian civil war has been ongoing, calling it highly inconsistent and misguided.
The opposition party leader considers President Recep Tayyip Erdogan the main beneficiary of the fall of Bashar al-Assad's regime. He noted, however, that Syria is currently in "a transitional period that is full of uncertainty as to how far Turkey will really be able to defend its national interests."
"It is necessary to stand up for the truth and keep cool," Ozel urged. Currently, the CHP shares the position of Turkish nationalists with the harshest possible anti-migration initiatives.
Similar proposals have already been put forward by Good Party leader Musavat Dervişoğlu, emphasizing that "Assad is gone and Turkish hospitality is over." According to him, his party petitioned Turkey's Supreme Administrative Court to revoke the citizenship of the republic for nearly 240,000 Syrians who received it earlier.
He emphasized that the opposition party's initiative is to encourage the voluntary return of Syrian refugees to their homeland in the first six months of 2025, and from July 1 he proposed to revoke the status of all Syrians under temporary protection in Turkey.
Turkish officials meanwhile have spoken of the need for voluntary, safe and organized return of Syrian refugees to their homeland. The country has opened border crossings with the neighboring state in recent weeks, but there is no talk of mass re-emigration.
Opposition Trumps
Alina Sbitneva, a researcher at the Middle East and Post-Soviet East Department of the Institute of Scientific Research of the Russian Academy of Sciences, noted in a conversation with Izvestia that the current chairman of the People's Republican Party, Ozgur Özel, one of the largest opposition forces in the country, inherited this anti-migrant discourse from his predecessor Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu.
- The HDP has long built its domestic political program on anti-Syrian sentiments and developed Napoleonic plans to return refugees to their homeland," Sbitneva said.
Refugee camp on the Turkish-Syrian border
Until the recent events in Syria, this rhetoric was also used against the country's ruling elite, which was constantly criticized for refugee camps, or for "open borders" and allegedly uncontrolled systematic flows of these internally displaced persons, the Turkologist explained.
According to her, this issue is very sensitive and explosive in Turkey.
- And that is why it is actively taken up by the opposition to loosen the chair on which the government is sitting. A lot changed in early December with the departure of Bashar al-Assad and the fall of his regime. The Turkish president was one of the first to say that the most difficult times for the Syrian people are over and Ankara will take the issue of the return of the displaced people under its control," the expert believes.
Thus, the head of state hinted that it was time to go home, the expert noted.
- Almost the same the other day said the head of the Turkish Foreign Ministry Hakan Fidan, saying that Turkey should provide an opportunity for the return of Syrians. At the same time, the refugees were urged to leave Turkey at the most vulnerable moment, when there is still no official government in Syria," the analyst believes.
She added that the environment is not the most favorable for such a return.
- Moreover, the discourse is gaining momentum that Turkey, literally sacrificing itself, protected the refugees, and now with a big heart is ready to let them go to their native harbor, as if no one else helped, but she was able to. It is her ability to turn even sometimes obviously not the most successful political decisions in her favor that amazes me," Sbitneva said.
She believes that, paradoxical as it may sound, the calls of the opposition and the Turkish ruling circles now sound almost in unison with regard to Syrian refugees.
- The only trump cards left for the HDP are caustic remarks about the ruling Justice Party and the development of the topic in the spirit of "why not before?"," the Turkologist summarized.
Increase ratings
Razil Guzaerov, a junior researcher at the Middle and Post-Soviet East Department of the Institute of National Research Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences, noted in a conversation with Izvestia that the issue related to the return of Syrian refugees to their homeland was one of the key points of the opposition's program for Turkey's 2023 presidential election.
- Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu claimed that he would send Syrian refugees home within two years. In this way, the opposition sought to attract to its side the votes of those citizens who were not satisfied with Recep Tayyip Erdogan's migration policy," the expert explained.
He added that obviously, at the initial stage of the Syrian crisis, the Turkish authorities could not fully assess the scale of the future flow of refugees.
- Back in 2012, there were statements that Turkey would not be able to accept more than 100 thousand Syrians, and now, according to official data, there are about 3 million refugees in the country. Despite the fact that such a flow of Syrians created a certain tension in Turkish society and became an additional financial burden, the official authorities used the situation in the foreign policy discourse," the expert believes.
According to the Turkologist, in this way it was demonstrated that Ankara cares about Muslims, works for the benefit of ordinary people and makes efforts to reduce violence in the region.
- At the current stage, Turkey looks like one of the beneficiaries of the situation in Syria. The opposition used to cite the Syrian crisis as an example of Erdogan's failed policy and the impossibility of realizing the president's ambitions," Guzaerov said.
However, as the analyst believes, Ankara is now demonstrating the situation as a victory for its long-term strategy. All this is actively used for positive PR of the current government inside the country, which may affect the increase of Recep Tayyip Erdogan's ratings, the political scientist believes.
- In this case, the opposition is trying to counteract the increase in the ratings of the head of state. The past elections have demonstrated that it has a chance to come to power if it successfully implements its strategy," the Turkologist said.
Therefore, the opposition forces, in his opinion, point to the probable deterioration of the situation in Syria and the beginning of a new round of refugee flow into the country, despite the statement of official representatives that the number of Syrians leaving for their homeland is increasing every day.
