The leader of the opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP), Kemal Kilicdaroglu, has vowed to send millions of Syrian refugees home and restore diplomatic relations with Bashar al-Assad if the opposition coalition wins the upcoming elections.
“If needed, the UN must intervene, we must get a 100% guarantee from Assad,” Oğlu said in an interview with Reuters. “This guarantee must be linked to international agreements. Assad will not attack (returning refugees), and he will preserve their material security and lives.”
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A delegation of Syrian opposition figures met with Kilicdaroglu in Istanbul in October 2021, to strengthen communication between representatives of Syrian refugees and Turkish opposition movements. This came particularly after the escalation of racist rhetoric against Syrians and the exploitation of the refugee issue by a number of Turkish opposition movements for political reasons.
Turkish President, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, recently expressed regret over the Turkish opposition’s recent attitudes towards Syrians. These attitudes are represented through the opposition’s pledge to deport them home once it takes power. Erdogan said that Turkey currently hosts around 5 million asylum seekers, including some 4 million from Syria and others from Iraq. He noted that “all of them are guests and have not left their countries out of their own will.”
This article was translated and edited by The Syrian Observer. The Syrian Observer has not verified the content of this story. Responsibility for the information and views set out in this article lies entirely with the author.
