How Turkiye’s Opposition Party is Whipping up Hatred of Refugees?

It is no longer possible to talk about politics or political parties without addressing extremist currents and parties, from Trump in the United States and Eric Zemmour in France to a number of parties and currents in Germany, Austria, Hungary, and others, including the Victory Party (ZP) in Turkiye as a new model.

The party is led by Umit Ozdag who is always promising to send back all refugees where they come from.

He is already known for his constant incitement of fear and hatred toward Syrians in Turkiye.

Umit’s recent statement about laying mines on the Turkiye-Syria borders to prevent any crossing of refugees fueled popular anger.

Turkiye hosts nearly 3.7 million Syrian refugees, the largest number of refugees hosted by any country in the world.

 

Mines to Kill Refugees

“Friends, tomorrow I will go to Reyhanli in Hatay and lay the first mine on the Turkiye-Syria border. Let's put the rest of the mines when we win power,” these were Umit Ozdag’s racist words on Sunday, June 26, when he was promising to expel all Syrian refugees, saying they are no longer welcome in Turkiye.

The Leader of the Victory Party is constantly inciting fear and hatred toward refugees saying he will lay mines to stop the flow of Syrian refugees.

However, Hatay province prevented him from entering for one week to stop his plans.

Interior Minister, Suleyman Soylu, described him as "crazy" saying: “He threatens to lay mines on the borders in Hatay. This man is crazy. He has lost his mind.”

"We will not allow such provocation from a person who relies only on xenophobia, he is just a man whose life has been filled with lies and provocations,” he added.

Deputy Minister of Interior,  Ismail Catakli, said Ozdag’s words are an explicit call for murder and Syrian human rights organizations should prosecute him in Turkiye, Europe, and America.

“This idiot has reached the abhorrent degree of incitement against Syrian refugees,” he said.

The opposition Victory Party and its leader have recently increased their aggressive behavior towards refugees through different campaigns

to fuel the Turkish street’s anger.

"We promise our Turkish people that once we get the power we will withdraw from the Ottawa Treaty and we will lay mines on our borders again,” Ozdag said.

 

Whipping up Hatred of Refugees

ZP, led by Umit Ozdag, is using Turkiye’s economic unrest to stir up hatred against Syrian refugees, in particular, as The Times reported on Sunday.

Ozdag has recently promised to send back all of them.

Through a “xenophobic social media campaign,” his party is pulling bigger parties to the right, giving the Turkish public a “soft target” to condemn those refugees for the country’s economic difficulties, according to the same source.

The British newspaper quoted Selim Koru, an analyst for the Economic Policy Research Foundation of Turkey (TEPAV) as saying: “They’re driving the agenda far beyond their sights, their stature.”

Turkiye holds 3.7 million Syrian refugees, the largest contingent in the world, who fled the civil war that erupted in 2011.

The country has also become one of the main routes for people fleeing Afghanistan after the Taliban seizure of power.

The refugees' file has been further politicized just before the 2023 elections. Amid a decline in public support, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan announced last month that he is working on a plan to assist the voluntary return of around 1 million Syrian refugees, which contradicts his government’s long-held pro-migrant policy.

The asylum seekers’ file is Turkey’s most important problem, Ozdag said in an interview with The Times last month: “It is not only a national security issue, but also it’s one of the most important reasons for the current economic crisis.”

Although his party’s share on polls is just about 1.5%, his political influence goes far beyond this as his social media posts frequently go viral, according to The Times. “Ozdag’s posts have recently beat the number of likes on Erdogan’s posts,” Bloomberg read.

 

‘Anti-Refugee Platform’

For years Umit Ozdag, "was a rabble-rouser at the edge of Turkish politics, part of a nationalist movement obsessed with the ancient purity of the Turkic people," The Times read.

As the Turkish economy deteriorated, the public mood turned against millions of Syrian refugees settling in different Turkish cities.

“Send them all back where they came from. Every last one,” with this message, Ozdag has won great support.

The ZP is working on an anti-refugee platform believing that refugees and irregular migrants are part of “an international plot to divide Turkiye,” according to the British newspaper.

Founded on August 26, 2021, the party has succeeded in keeping itself under the media and political events’ spotlight, and this was by focusing on immigration policies in general, and the Syrians in particular.

Its aim was “establishing a Turkish national constitution following Ataturk’s path,” according to Ozdag’s statement.

The party hardly addresses any of the Turkish domestic and foreign policy files but the refugee issue, and the Syrians in particular, as they represent a threat to Turkish culture, future, language, and even to the country’s national security.

The party’s leader is dealing exclusively with the issue of Syrians and immigrants in the country, even his defining sentence on Twitter that reads: "The Victory Party is coming, and the refugees will leave,” reflects his anti-refugee beliefs.

It is noteworthy that the man adopting this extremist discourse against immigrants is in fact a descendant of an immigrant family from Dagestan.

He is always present in every event involving a Syrian or a foreign refugee, recording video visits to the homes, shops, and workplaces of foreigners, in an act that many consider whipping up hatred against them and presenting them as potential targets for any fanatic, racist or reckless act.