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.



Israeli Airstrike Targets Hezbollah Weapons Facility in Syria

This picture shows a crater caused by an Israeli strike on the road leading to Syria's Jousieh border crossing with Lebanon on October 28, 2024. (AFP)
This picture shows a crater caused by an Israeli strike on the road leading to Syria's Jousieh border crossing with Lebanon on October 28, 2024. (AFP)
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Israeli Airstrike Targets Hezbollah Weapons Facility in Syria

This picture shows a crater caused by an Israeli strike on the road leading to Syria's Jousieh border crossing with Lebanon on October 28, 2024. (AFP)
This picture shows a crater caused by an Israeli strike on the road leading to Syria's Jousieh border crossing with Lebanon on October 28, 2024. (AFP)

The Israeli military said it conducted an airstrike on a Hezbollah weapons storage facility in Syria on Tuesday.

The military said the strike targeted the facility run by Hezbollah’s munitions unit in the Syrian town of al-Qusayr, near the border with Lebanon. It said Hezbollah had recently expanded its facilities in the area to step up weapons smuggling into Lebanon from Syria.

The strikes hit an industrial zone in al-Qusayr, according to Syrian state media and the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a conflict-monitoring group. There were no immediate reports of casualties.

Israel has carried out hundreds of strikes in Syria over recent years, primarily targeting government-controlled areas, but it rarely acknowledges or discusses these operations. The strikes often target Syrian forces or Iranian-backed groups.

On Monday, an Israeli airstrike struck near the Sayida Zeinab suburb, south of Damascus, an area where Iran-backed groups are active. The Israeli military claimed responsibility for killing the head of Hezbollah’s military branch in Syria, whom it identified as Mahmoud Mohammed Shaheen.

For the past month, Israel has been carrying out an escalated bombardment campaign in Lebanon, aiming to cripple the Hezbollah armed group, which is allied with Syria and Iran. Israel has also launched ground incursions just across the Israel-Lebanon border, saying it aims to put an end to a year of Hezbollah rocket fire into northern Israel.