Turkey’s CHP Leader Calls for Restoring Ties with Damascus, Sending Refugees Home

Police and security personnel stand guard outside the private Sanko University Hospital where a fire broke out in the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) intensive care unit in Gaziantep, Turkey, December 19, 2020. Kadir Gunes/Demiroren News Agency via REUTERS
Police and security personnel stand guard outside the private Sanko University Hospital where a fire broke out in the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) intensive care unit in Gaziantep, Turkey, December 19, 2020. Kadir Gunes/Demiroren News Agency via REUTERS
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Turkey’s CHP Leader Calls for Restoring Ties with Damascus, Sending Refugees Home

Police and security personnel stand guard outside the private Sanko University Hospital where a fire broke out in the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) intensive care unit in Gaziantep, Turkey, December 19, 2020. Kadir Gunes/Demiroren News Agency via REUTERS
Police and security personnel stand guard outside the private Sanko University Hospital where a fire broke out in the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) intensive care unit in Gaziantep, Turkey, December 19, 2020. Kadir Gunes/Demiroren News Agency via REUTERS

Turkey’s opposition leader and Republican People’s Party (CHP) Chairman Kemal Kilicdaroglu has called on Ankara to restore diplomatic relations and bilateral ties with the Syrian government of President Bashar Al-Assad.

Kilicdaroglu has also urged the reopening of the Turkish and Syrian embassies in the two countries, stressing the need for peace in Syria so that refugees may return to their homes.

“If we were in power, there would be no problem in Syria, but relations with Damascus need improving in any way,” said the leader in an implicit hint directed at the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP).

“The embassies must open again,” added Kilicdaroglu.

As for how Syrian refugees are affecting Turkey’s economy, Kilicdaroglu said they are creating unwanted competition to local industries and guilds.

“Syrians settled here and carry on their business, which caused a serious problem for the industrialists and the residents,” he said during a visit to Turkey’s southern Gaziantep province on Sunday.

Noting that there are between 500,000-700,000 Syrians in Gaziantep, Kilicdaroglu stressed the need to change the current situation and bring peace to Syria immediately.

For Kilicdaroglu, Syrians may pose a serious demographic threat in the future, especially that there are more Syrians than Turks in the southern Kilis province.

He went on to push for the European Union (EU) to take over reconstruction in the war-torn country.

“The EU should build roads, bridges, schools, hospitals, and parks in Syria,” said Kilicdaroglu, adding that after reconstruction, Syrians must be told to “go home,” where they’ll have all their needs met.

So far, it is the CHP spearheading efforts for reestablishing ties with the Syrian regime in Turkey.

The opposition party believes that Turkey’s current policy on Syria was based on grave miscalculations.

Turkey hosts around 3.7 million Syrians, the majority of whom are settled in Gaziantep and Istanbul.



Palestinians Trickle Out of War-Ravaged Northern Gaza

A boy rests as displaced Palestinians flee Beit Lahia in the northern Gaza Strip, through the main Salah al-Din road on the outskirts of Gaza City, on November 5, 2024, amid the ongoing war between Israel and Hamas. (AFP)
A boy rests as displaced Palestinians flee Beit Lahia in the northern Gaza Strip, through the main Salah al-Din road on the outskirts of Gaza City, on November 5, 2024, amid the ongoing war between Israel and Hamas. (AFP)
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Palestinians Trickle Out of War-Ravaged Northern Gaza

A boy rests as displaced Palestinians flee Beit Lahia in the northern Gaza Strip, through the main Salah al-Din road on the outskirts of Gaza City, on November 5, 2024, amid the ongoing war between Israel and Hamas. (AFP)
A boy rests as displaced Palestinians flee Beit Lahia in the northern Gaza Strip, through the main Salah al-Din road on the outskirts of Gaza City, on November 5, 2024, amid the ongoing war between Israel and Hamas. (AFP)

Dozens of Palestinians trickled southward from war-ravaged northern Gaza, recounting how they had hardly eaten in days with aid long cut off to the area under heavy Israeli bombardment and military campaign.

Leaving the far northern town of Beit Lahia, the families -- mostly women and children -- dragged rucksacks and satchels with belongings as they walked down a street entering Gaza City, where every building had been completely flattened or partially destroyed.

“We came barefoot. We have no sandals, no clothes, nothing. We have no money. There is no food or drink,” said Huda Abu Laila.

Israel launched a fresh offensive in northern Gaza in early October, focusing on Jabaliya, a densely populated, decades-old urban refugee camp where it says Hamas had regrouped. Other areas also hit include Beit Lahia and Beit Hanoun, situated just north of Gaza City, like Jabalia.

The UN estimated last week that some 100,000 people remain in the affected area. It has said no aid has reached the far north of the enclave for weeks.

On Monday, the Palestinian Health Ministry in Gaza said that there are no ambulances or emergency crews currently operating north of Gaza City.

Israel has repeatedly issued evacuation warnings for the entirety of northern Gaza, including Gaza City, where several hundred thousand more Palestinians remain.