We cannot manage Syrian refugees and invite trouble

MEHMET ALİ BİRAND
mab@hurriyet.com.tr


Their numbers are increasing. The latest figures show they are nearing 50,000. Almost every day, stories emerge of fights erupting in the refugee camps where Syrians are staying.

We are talking about a city of 50,000. Shortly, this figure will reach 100,000. We are talking about a huge mass where ethnic separation and individual fights are in abundance. Especially, if the power change in Syria takes a long time, this refugee situation will spread. If necessary measures are not taken now, this city will create major issues for us.


Accepting refugees is a humanitarian act. Our country is very accommodating in embracing refugees. However, there has to be a limit to it and care must be taken in the management of those who have arrived.

Taking a look at previous examples, Turkey opens its arms to refugees, but it is short in the follow-up. It lacks the necessary work that accompanies this. Looking at the complaints, these people are not being given enough food or drinks; their health problems are not being properly dealt with and they are not being treated well.

They have been left to the mercy of our bureaucracy and security forces. In this case, the general approach is like this: “We are doing you a favor, we are saving you from death. Now you are complaining to us, you ungrateful bunch.”

We are mistreating them. We don’t pay them enough attention. We regard all of them as criminals.

Let us not forget that these people have a completely different culture. They have left their homes and everything they own and have entered into an adventure in fear. They have no protection. They have their habits, ethnic sensitivities and fights. They will be staying in our country for a while as guests.

The more we treat them moderately and understandingly, the better we meet their demands. If we treat them better, then we will form a very strong Turkish lobby in Syria in the future. However, if we beat them and try to discipline them and do not care about their sensitivities, and if we cannot meet their essential rights and look down upon them, then we will create enemies of Turks.

The ides of July
Somehow, the month of July bears the memories of major miseries and massacres for all of us.

July 2, 1993, Madımak. In the Central Anatolian town of Sivas, 37 people were killed in front of the eyes of our security forces, in front of the eyes of the state, in front of our eyes. They were burnt alive. They died of smoke inhalation. What came next is a scandal of justice.

July 5, 1993, Ba?a?ar. The outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) raided the Ba?a?ar village in the Kemaliye district of the southeastern city Erzincan with 100 people. The congregation was forced outside the mosque and 29 people were executed by shooting. Houses were torched; four more people died.

July 11, 1995, Srebrenica. In front of the eyes of the world, despite all the intelligence that a massacre was going to be organized, under the protection of 400 armed Dutch peace keeping troops, inside the safe zone of the United Nations, Serbs massacred 8,300 Bosnian males for five days, the ages of whom ranged from 13 to 70. The bodies were buried in 64 mass graves. Only some of the decision-making perpetrators were found years later, only after photos of them roaming freely were published in the press and only after the European Union set the prerequisite that they be caught before Serbia enters the EU.

http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/we-cannot-manage-syrian-refugees-and-invite-trouble-.aspx?pageID=449&nID=26164&NewsCatID=405