CHP leader continues to target Syrian refugees escaping Assad’s massacres

Main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP) Chairman Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu has pointed to Syrian refugees in Turkey as the financial resource for the party's election promises.

In an election rally meeting in Giresun on Wednesday, Kılıçdaroğlu promised that no one will be poor in Turkey and asked for four years to govern. In response to questions about how he will find the financial resource to realize his promises he said: "We have 2 million Syrian refugees because of misguided foreign policy. If you can find $5.5 billion for those 2 million Syrians, why do you ask 'where is the source?' when it comes to the situation of retired people. This country has the resources. This country is a rich country."

This kind of pledge is not a first for Kılıçdaroğlu. In a speech in the southern province of Mersin where he introduced CHP candidates, Kılıçdaroğlu pledged that the CHP would send nearly 2 million Syrian refugees who fled the civil war in their country back if it came to power with the June 7 general elections. He said: "[The CHP] will send our Syrian brothers back. We will say to them, 'Sorry, but go back to your hometown.' "

Kılıçdaroğlu's latest election promise also goes hand in hand with his 2014 remarks in a live interview with Ahmet Hakan on CNN Türk when he asserted that to accept 1.5 million refugees into Turkey is treason. Kılıçdaroğlu corrected his remarks by saying that it is treason to actually produce politics that put the refugees in harsh conditions after Hakan asked: "Do we not allow those people who are in difficult conditions to come in?"

The main opposition is accused by the ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Party) government of siding with Syrian President Bashar Assad. Generally claimed to have close ties with the Assad regime and for having a party policy of not interfering in the political affairs of the Middle East, the CHP came under harsh criticism in 2013 when the party sent a delegation to hold talks with Assad.