Türkiye seeks to end Syria war, ensure safe return of refugees - Altun

Türkiye’s policy is to end the conflict and rebuild a Syria that has its territorial integrity intact with its citizens living in peace and freedom, the head of the Turkish Communications Directorate, Fahrettin Altun has said.

In a statement released on X, formerly known as Twitter, Altun said on Thursday that Ankara’s Syria policy intends to arrive at a peaceful resolution of the conflict that has displaced millions of refugees, a major chunk of whom Türkiye has been hosting for over a decade.

Altun said that Türkiye aims to ensure the safe return of refugees in his country, and underlined that humanitarian and legal infrastructure must be built to accomplish this.

Altun, however, criticised the international community for ignoring this goal, avoiding to share the burden of supporting refugees and providing minimal support to them, and leaving Türkiye alone in this monumental humanitarian duty.

“Turkish people have been extremely compassionate and generous with their support for those who have been given no choice but to leave their homelands,” Altun said.

“In line with that spirit, our foreign policy has remained committed to humanitarian principles despite many pressures and provocations of all sorts,” he said.

“We didn’t let fringe opposition groups turn this issue to inflame anti-immigrant sentiments. We will not allow external actors to exploit some grievances to dictate our policy, either.”

Altun’s remarks came after angry crowds in the central Anatolian city of Kayseri set fire to numerous properties owned by Syrian nationals. The violence was sparked by an incident involving a Syrian individual who sexually abused a seven-year-old girl. The unrest also spread to other cities, albeit with lesser intensity.

Amidst the unrest, social media platform X saw a surge in disinformation and hateful content, with a large number of users deploying derogatory language and calling for the expulsion of Syrian refugees from Türkiye.

Nevertheless, the Turkish authorities revealed that a significant portion of the posts were generated by bots and were deemed provocative.

‘Disturbing level of hypocrisy by the West’

Altun criticised those who want to stain Türkiye’s humanitarian approach to refugees, saying “They are working hard to depict our country as a hostile place.”

“The contrast between the security-oriented, xenophobic, and Islamophobic approach adopted by many European countries and the humanitarian approach of our country could not be clearer,” Altun said.

“Türkiye has proudly and consistently stood against the European far-right that has been showing an ugly face of Europe in their fight against immigrants and refugees,” he said.

Altun also criticised political groups in Western countries who have been “practicing a disturbing level of hypocrisy by preaching human rights while tolerating anti-immigrant sentiments and xenophobia.”

“We have been witnessing the unraveling of the social and economic fabric of Europe as a result of the far right’s destabilising rise,”

“The recent campaign against our national football team’s player Merih Demiral during the European Football Championship is just another symptom of this growing disease in some Western nations,” he added.

Turkish footballer Merih Demiral, who scored two goals for Türkiye's national football team as they beat Austria 2-1 and qualified for quarter finals of the Euro 2024, made the 'Bozkurt' sign, a symbol of pride for many Turkish nationalists.

Following a request by the German Interior Minister Nancy Faeser to sanction Demiral, UEFA launched a disciplinary investigation into footballer Merih Demiral.

The Turkish Foreign Ministry condemned the move and summoned the German ambassador to Ankara for an explanation.

“Those nations that seek true stability and are serious about living up to the humanitarian principles they preach must stand with Türkiye and confront the forces of racism, xenophobia, and Islamophobia,” Fahrettin Altun said.