Kemal Kilicdaroglu Turkey’s opposition presidential candidate announced Thursday in Ankara that he would send all refugees home if elected.
“As soon as I take power, I will bring all the refugees home, period,” Kilicdaroglu, the head of the largest opposition group, the Kemalist Republican People’s Party, said at a press conference at the CHP headquarters.
The politician accused Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of not defending the country’s borders and honor.
I deliberately brought more than 10 million refugees to this country… Even this was not enough, in order to secure the import of the votes I sold Turkish citizenship at auction,
Kilicdaroglu stated. The politician added that Erdogan made his citizens refugees, and if the current head of state remains, more than 10 million refugees will come to Turkey.
Incumbent President Erdogan won the first round of the presidential elections held Sunday in the small Asian country with 49.51 percent of the vote. In the absence of an absolute majority, a second round will be held on May 28 with the participation of the two best candidates. Kilicdaroglu, who was nominated by the six-party opposition alliance, won 44.88 percent of the vote.
At his campaign event at the end of April, Kilicdaroglu said he would send all Syrian refugees home within two years, but now he is talking about all refugees.
Sinan Ogan, the third candidate in the first round of the presidential election, who received 5.17 percent as an anti-immigration politician, will decide in the next few days whether to support Erdogan or Kilicdaroglu in the second round.
MTI added that Turkey is home to the largest number of refugees in the world, nearly 4 million according to official figures.
