Kurtulmuş's statement on 'refugees': Their only option was to come to Turkey

Parliament Speaker Numan Kurtulmuş chaired the 4th session titled “How Can Human Rights Be Guaranteed Considering the Increase in International Migration Flows?” at the 10th MIKTA Speakers' Consultation, which consists of Mexico, Indonesia, South Korea, Turkey, and Australia, held in Mexico City, the capital of Mexico.

In his opening speech at the session, Kurtulmuş stated that Turkey has been the country hosting the most refugees in the world, especially since 2014, and said, “We are hosting approximately 5 million migrants. More than 3 million of these are Syrians fleeing the civil war.” Stating that Turkey is among the leading countries in the world that makes the greatest sacrifices regarding humanitarian aid, especially in the field of migrants, Kurtulmuş expressed, “In this sense, I can say that we have an extraordinarily great experience regarding migration.”

TURKEY HAS OPENED ITS DOORS TO SCIENTISTS IN EUROPE

Kurtulmuş stated that as Turkey, they also have great experience in terms of migration in a historical sense, and continued his statement as follows:

“After the collapse of the Ottoman Empire, before and after the establishment of the Republic of Turkey, many Ottoman citizens from different regions of the Ottoman Empire came to the Republic of Turkey and found themselves a new homeland in Anatolian lands. Furthermore, throughout history, we have opened our lands to those fleeing from numerous attacks and have hosted them. For example, more than 500 years ago, Turkey, the Ottoman lands, became the place where Jews and people of different ethnic and religious origins fleeing the Inquisition courts in Spain came and took refuge. Again, during the Second World War, Turkey was the place where Jews fleeing the Nazi massacres in Germany took refuge. As an example, I can say this: In 1938, Turkey opened its doors to Jewish scientists in Europe fleeing the Nazi massacre, and many faculties of Istanbul and Ankara universities became centers of important scientific research thanks to German-origin Jewish scientists. Today, we continue this historical mission and host desperate people coming from all over the world.”

Pointing out that the “migrant issue” is one of the most talked-about topics in the world but the one whose causes are discussed the least, Kurtulmuş emphasized that treating the migration issue as a cause in itself is a general misconception. Kurtulmuş made the statement, “However, migration is not a cause, but a dire result that threatens humanity, brought about by numerous causes. Therefore, it is the duty of the international community to find these different causes of migration, to fight against the reasons that create migration and turn it into a global threat, and to eliminate them.”

Kurtulmuş underlined that it is not possible to solve the migrant issue without eliminating wars, poverty and deprivation, occupations, internal conflicts, climate change, and especially the new waves of migration brought about by drought, desertification, famine, and water scarcity caused by climate change, as well as the instabilities continuing in many regions of the world.

THE MIGRATION ISSUE CANNOT BE PREVENTED BY MILITARY MEASURES

Claiming that the migration issue cannot be solved by military measures or security precautions, Kurtulmuş noted the following:

“To solve the migrant issue, we must ensure that these results are eliminated. I want to be very clear. The issue of uncontrolled migration cannot be prevented by military measures or security measures. If that were the case, for example, we are in Mexico, not a single person from Mexico should have set out to migrate to the United States. If irregular migration could be prevented by military measures, dozens of migrant boats would not disappear into the depths of the cold sea every day in the Mediterranean, the Central Mediterranean, and the Eastern Mediterranean. The number of migrants who have died in the Mediterranean so far alone has exceeded 29 thousand,” he stated.

THEIR ONLY OPTION WAS TO MIGRATE

Finally, speaking about the Syrian refugees in Turkey, Numan Kurtulmuş claimed that for the Syrians, “their only option other than surviving was to migrate to Turkey.”

“We talk about thousands, tens of thousands of people migrating from Afghanistan, but we never talk about how the occupation of Afghanistan for decades, first by the Russians and then by the Americans, left the Afghan people in despair. If the Afghan people were not in that despair, would any of them risk their lives to migrate to other countries? Now let's talk about Turkey's experience. We are talking about over 3 million Syrians. For these Syrians, whose villages were burned, whose cities were destroyed by bombs, and who were face to face with death, their only option for survival was to migrate to Turkey.”