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New threat for Europe: Iranian refugees

by Ozan Ceyhun

Jun 27, 2019 - 12:19 am GMT+3
by Ozan Ceyhun Jun 27, 2019 12:19 am

No matter how much European countries thank Turkey it won't be enough. If it weren't for Turkey, right now European countries would be facing a big crisis. What would happen to Europe, if over 4 million Syrian refugees left Turkey and departed for Europe? What would happen if Turkey were to form refugee camps for Syrian refugees in Thrace, in other words on the doorstep of the EU, and hundreds of thousands of refugees were to begin living in those camps?

Nobody would be able to hold hundreds of thousands of Syrian refugees near Bulgaria and Greece.

Nobody would be able to hold them if hundreds of thousands of refugees were to begin walking toward Europe. Turkish police and the military, of course, wouldn't apply force on the Syrian refugees, and they would not be able to stop them from crossing the border.

What could Bulgarian or Greek soldiers do? Would the Hungarian army try to stop the refugees that passed through Bulgaria and Greece? Or would EU member Austria or Germany apply lethal force to stop the massive migration of refugees?

The EU stops refugees from passing to Italy and Malta by giving money to gangs in Libya. These gangs in Libya treat refugees very badly in the name of the EU. The EU, which claims that it is the "bastion of democracy and human rights," remains indifferent to this persecution.

What would EU member states, which are going through great problems with just a few refugees, experience if hundreds of thousands of Syrian refugees were to come? As in Italy and Austria, just a couple thousand refugees are able to cause far-right populists to become the government. If hundreds of thousands of refugees were to rush toward the EU, its state will be a complete fiasco.

Now the EU faces a new threat. The threat of more Syrian refugees has not passed. The EU did not keep its promises to Turkey in this matter. It only paid 1.4 billion of the 6 billion euros ($6.82 billion) of aid it promised to Turkey. It gave no aid to Turkey to lessen the problems it faces due to refugees. In fact, it is trying every method to destabilize Turkey. If EU public order were to know what the opposition that the EU supports against President Recep Tayyi​p Erdoğan was saying about refugees, they would have taken a stand against the EU in this matter. The EU has been able to remain at peace until this day due to Turkey's attitude, which values humans and human rights.

If Turkey were to utilize the old Castro method and open the EU border to Syrian refugees, EU capitals would be filled with Syrian refugees. I repeat; the EU has a great debt of appreciation for Turkey. If EU public opinion were to know the truth, they wouldn't support the EU's wrong decisions on Turkey.

But a bigger threat is at the door now: Iranian refugees. This is the reality if the U.S. follows through with its threats on Iran and if a military operation is to happen on the country that can hardly stand on its feet due to the harsh economic pressure. Turkey cannot house hundreds of thousands of more refugees that would come from Iran. Public opinion in Turkey would not approve of this. Especially for the EU, which always makes the wrong decisions against Turkey, no citizen in Turkey will host more refugees. Hundreds of thousands of refugees that would be forced to leave Iran would cause around four million Syrian refugees to move toward Europe. You can be sure of this. If the EU only wants to protect its interests, it has to stop the U.S. from performing a potential military operation against Iran by whatever means necessary, and it has to oppose U.S. economic sanctions against Iran.

In the G20 summit that will be held on June 28-29 in Japan, obviously, Russian President Vladimir Putin, Chinese President Xi Jinping and of course President Erdoğan will take a stand against U.S. President Donald Trump. However, in truth, EU leaders should take a firm stand in this matter all together.

Starting with Emmanuel Macron and Angela Merkel, all EU representatives that will meet with Trump must clearly state that they are against a military operation by the U.S. on Iran.

If not, in the EU extraordinary leaders summit that will be held in Brussels and June 30, they should not only decide on the next EU Council president, EU Commission president and European Parliament president but they should also discuss the preparations necessary to accommodate the Iranian refugee tide that will come to Europe. For Iranian refugees, Europe is a very attractive destination. Since the old Shah period they have many relatives living in Europe. This will increase many Iranian refugees' hopes of going to Europe. I repeat: No one should trust Turkey too much in Europe. The Turkish public is very angry with the EU on this matter and will not make any more sacrifices. If the EU is unable to stop Trump's new Iran adventure its situation will be miserable.

We are giving a you a warning.

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The views and opinions expressed in this article are solely those of the author. They do not necessarily reflect the editorial stance, values or position of Daily Sabah. The newspaper provides space for diverse perspectives as part of its commitment to open and informed public discussion.
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