After the Turkish Armed Forces (TSK) liberated the northwestern Syrian city of Afrin from People's Protection Units (YPG) terrorists, the Washington Post published a story last month claiming that Turkish officials started urging Syrian refugees living in Turkey to go back to Syria. As "the Turkish public has soured on their presence, citing cultural differences and competition for jobs," the Washington Post said, "Turkish officials want them gone."

"That abrupt reversal is unsettling many Syrian refugees, leaving them afraid for the future they dreamed of in Turkey," the report added, arguing that the TSK victories in northern Syria paved the way for the Turkish government to send the Syrians back, even the ones that "are wary of returning to a country wrecked by a war that is not yet even finished."

Of course, the story was immediately circulated by the anti-President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan Twitter users with unfair comments. Some were ready to claim that Erdoğan has used the Syrian refugees as a tool to threaten the West, while others were accusing him of never being sincere or well-intentioned with Syrians since the very beginning.It has been 50 days since April 10, the day that the report in question was published on the Washington Post. There was no follow-up story from the reporters, Erin Cunningham and Zakaria Zakaria, as no Syrians have been sent back to Syria by force; nor are there any signs of such an intention. Thousands of Syrian refugees have returned home for religious holidays, such as Eid al Fitr, and returned back to Turkey, as Turkish officials have periodically opened borders crossings for the purposes of temporary leave. Some 500,000 Syrians have been expected to go back to Afrin once Operation Olive Branch ensures security and safety in the region. However, the government has no plan to force Syrians to leave who do not want to go back. After Operation Euphrates Shield – carried out between August 2016 and March 2017 by the TSK to cleanse Daesh elements from the Turkish-Syrian border and to prevent the outlawed PKK's Syrian branch the YPG from taking control of the territory with the support of U.S. troops – more than 140,000 Syrians have willingly returned to Jarabulus.I was appalled by the Washington Post story spreading negative commentary about Turkey's Syrian policy as I have not seen any reports highlighting the never-ending hatred of some Turkish pro-Bashar Assad circles, especially originating from some Turkish opposition party figures, against Syrian refugees since the civil war started. The false claims that the Turkish government – which hosts more than 3 million Syrian refugees while other Western states refuse to take them – is preparing to force Syrians out after turning a blind eye to Turkish opposition parties' hostility toward refugees were like a very bad joke. 

Over the past few years, opposition party leaders, for example the main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP) leader Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu, vowed to send Syrian refugees back if his party comes to power. Last year in August, he said: "We want Syrians in Turkey to go back their country. That is clear," pledging that the CHP would send them back to Syria if it came to power in the elections. Before the June 7 general elections in April 2015, he also said, "The CHP will send the 2 million Syrian refugees [the then number of Syrian refugees in Turkey] back to their country," while speaking to crowds in the Edirne province of Turkey. I have not seen a news story in international media – which has excessively focused on Turkish politics – reporting those promises of the CHP leader and discussing why and how he would have managed to had he won the elections. Would he have kicked them out of the country through the border? Or would he have struck a deal with Syrian dictator Bashar Assad to send regime forces to Turkey to get them back? As the June 24 elections in Turkey approach, presidential candidates running against Erdoğan are giving the same campaign promises, and unsurprisingly, no one in the international media's Istanbul or Ankara offices seem to be covering those stories. Aren't they worth reporting for their target audience who want to know and learn more about Turkish politics? Or perhaps reporting the xenophobic speeches of opposition figures running against Erdoğan does not suit their agendas designed to depict Erdoğan as the one and only bad man here in Turkey and his rivals as the good ones.In a TV interview last week, the CHP's presidential candidate Muharrem İnce made some remarks regarding the Syrian refugees, recalling Kılıçdaroğlu's former vows. He said: "There are 4 million Syrians. They go to Syria during the Eid, they stay there for 10 days and come back." He stressed that if they are able to stay there, they should live there permanently. "When they leave for the holiday, I would close the door and they would stay there. Is Turkey a food bank?" he asked, threatening Syrians and revealing that he has no clue about the dangers surrounding their journeys back during holiday periods. Those who temporarily return often risk their lives to help their relatives who could not leave Syria and need humanitarian assistance.

The head and the presidential candidate of the newly founded far-right İyi Party (İP), Meral Akşener, also vowed that she would send back Syrian refugees before the end of 2019 if she is elected as president on June 24. "I promise you here that the Syrian refugees who are in Turkey will have their Ramadan breakfast in 2019 in Syria," she said in a gathering in Mersin province on May 6. She added that the presence of Syrian refugees has had a negative impact on Turkey's economy, accusing Erdoğan of doubling the number of the refugees in the country.These are not surprising promises coming from the opposition figures as both Turkish people and Syrian refugees in Turkey have gotten used to those threats over the years. Most of the anti-Erdoğan political figures have expressed their discomfort with Syrians being in Turkey for years; sometimes using fascistic remarks and sometimes pitting Turks against Syrians. And now, they once again want to get votes by raising populism and xenophobia and aim to win the elections with increasing hatred and hostility against Syrian refugees just like the far-right parties tried to do in Europe. But obviously, you will not see any stories penned in English about the opposition's populist vows or about how the Syrian refugees feel after those threats are splashed across the pages of self-proclaimed "unbiased" media organizations.