Syrians cross the border into the country, while Turks complain they feel like second-class citizens – but President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan welcomes the refugees: A month before Turkey’s elections, the opposition IYI party agitates in this campaign video entitled “Uninvited guests” against migrants.
The film cuts together statements made by Erdoğan on the refugee issue and conjures up “a perforated border” and a “constantly growing danger” from allegedly violent foreigners.
Former Interior Minister Meral Aksener’s right-wing conservative IYI party is part of an alliance of six opposition parties that wants to end the 20-year rule of Erdoğan and his AKP party in the presidential and parliamentary elections on May 14.
Refugee issue as leverage
So far the election campaign has focused on the failure of the government after the earthquake disaster in February and the poor economic situation with high inflation and unemployment. Now the opposition, which is in the lead in most polls, wants to put pressure on the president with the refugee issue.
Turkey has taken in 3.6 million Syrians and hundreds of thousands of other migrants from Afghanistan and elsewhere, more than any other country in the world. Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu, Erdogan’s challenger in the presidential election, discovered Turkey’s growing displeasure with the large number of foreigners as an issue early on.
90
percent of Turks wants the Syrians to leave their country.
As early as 2021 he announced that he would send the Syrians home from Turkey within two years of taking over the government. That struck a nerve. According to surveys, more than 90 percent of Turks want the Syrians to leave their country.
After initial hesitation, Erdogan jumped on the bandwagon. He took up Kılıçdaroğlu’s demand that talks with the leadership in Damascus prepare a return for the Syrians. The president, who for years refused any contact with the government of Syrian ruler Bashar al-Assad, is now trying to meet with Assad. The Syrian leader rejects the proposal because he does not want to help Erdoğan in the election campaign.
“Türkiye First”
Erdoğan’s swing allowed Turkey’s major parties to reach a consensus on the refugee issue: before the May elections, both the government and the opposition are advertising with the promise to send the Syrian refugees home. The election program of Erdoğan’s AKP announces a “voluntary, safe and dignified” homecoming for the Syrians. More than 500,000 Syrians have traveled back to Syria from Turkey since 2016.
The opposition accuses Erdoğan of having allowed too many Syrians into the country with his “open-door policy” and is fanning fears of foreign infiltration. The video by the IYI party shows an excerpt from a television appearance by Interior Minister Süleyman Soylu last year, in which Soylu stated that around 200,000 Syrians had already been naturalized.
200,000
Syrians have already been naturalized in Turkey.
Both the AKP and the opposition want to better secure the Turkish borders in order to prevent new waves of immigration. The opposition alliance also announced that it would “review” the 2016 refugee pact with the EU after taking over government.
According to the Alliance’s election program, the new government will not allow Turkey to be misused as a “buffer state” in refugee policy. The pro-Kurdish Green Left Party, which does not belong to the six-party alliance but supports Kılıçdaroğlu, opposes in its election program human rights issues such as the refugee issue in relations with the EU as a bargaining chip.
In the event of a change of power in Ankara in May, Europe would therefore have to prepare for a tougher stance from Turkey on this issue. Presidential candidate Kılıçdaroğlu said in an interview with Euronews that he would follow the motto “Turkey first” in the refugee pact.
