Turkey To Send Up To 500,000 Syrian Refugees Home - President

Umer Jamshaid Published May 25, 2023 | 12:10 AM

ANKARA (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 25th May, 2023) Turkey has started a repatriation process that will see up to 500,000 Syrian refugees go home, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Wednesday.

"As of now, we have started to send around 500,000 refugees to briquette houses in northern Syria," the Anadolu news agency quoted Erdogan as saying during a campaign appearance in Ankara's Mamak district.

He added that the Syrian resettlement project is a product of cooperation between Turkey and Qatar and will ultimately house 1 million refugees

Erdogan also noted that in its migration policy, Ankara draws on the expertise and experience of the United States, France and Germany.

"We cannot ignore Germany, France, America. Just as they take their steps regarding the refugees under a certain program, we do the same thing," he was quoted as saying.

On Tuesday, opposition leader Kemal Kilicdaroglu, Erdogan's main opponent in the presidential race, said that he would not "leave the country to those who contemplate importing 10 million illegal migrants (to Turkey)." He added that "tomorrow that number could be 30 million, which would threaten our existence." During his campaign before the first round of elections, he had promised to send all Syrian and Afghan immigrants out of Turkey.

The Turkish migration agency reported in January that 59,000 Syrian refugees had returned home and 3.5 million continued to remain in Turkey.

Turkey held parliamentary and presidential elections on May 14. The first round of the presidential vote saw Erdogan win 49.24% and Kilicdaroglu 45.07%. A runoff is set for May 28.