Turkey has been the most welcoming and humane country since the civil war started in Syria. Today there are almost 4 million Syrians living in Turkey. Most of them are integrated in city life, only around 50,000 stay in camps and the rest are contributing to the Turkish economy. Of course, this enormous number of refugees creates a number of problems, including integration, economic and social issues.

However, despite the problems, I am one of the few people who believe that with the right policies these unlucky people who had to leave their homes and lives behind can contribute to our country and our culture.

We shouldn’t be fooled by the far-right Turkish politicians and journalists who want to depict every single Syrian refugee as a criminal and Turkey as a country not able to control its borders. The statistics clearly show that the criminal records of the Syrian refugees are much lower than other groups in society and that the borders are very strictly monitored and controlled. Defense Minister Hulusi Akar said in an interview this week that for the first time in recent history the monitoring along the Syrian borders is very strict thanks to high-tech monitoring systems. Turkey tries to integrate these people but it also wants to provide the opportunities for them to go back to Syria.

With the increasing economic problems and the provocative attitudes of some opposition politicians like Ümit Özdağ who founded the first far-right political party, the Victory Party (ZP), in Turkey, there is growing discontent among the public toward the Syrians.

Project for a solution

The government is working on a solution to this problem. President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan always stresses the humanitarian disaster that brought those people to our country and that Turkey is a big and friendly country to help those in need; on the other hand, it is also constructing different road maps.

Erdoğan announced that Turkey is planning a new project that will facilitate the voluntary return of 1 million Syrian refugees back to their country. Since Turkey started its cross-border operations, around 500,000 Syrians have already returned home and there are plans for 100,000 more houses for those who fled the war. Erdoğan also said there will be mosques, schools and social facilities around the houses that will create a productive space for those who return.

These efforts are very important as Erdoğan stresses that a return is only possible if it is voluntary. Forcing people to move back is unacceptable and inhumane. Labeling people as criminals and stereotyping them by their ethnicity is discrimination. We should draw the line between these two. The Turkish government has been very helpful to people in need, wherever they are, and it is working on an exit strategy while paying attention to not forcing or hurting anyone. I think this is a good example to the growing far-right in Europe as well as in Turkey.