ANKARA
The plight of Palestinian refugees is like a bleeding wound, Turkey's special envoy to Libya Emrullah Isler said on Tuesday.
“The Palestinian refugee issue is a bleeding wound, and the whole Middle East is dealing with this issue. However, Israel is always trying to make this issue forgotten,” Isler told a migration and diaspora forum in the Turkish capital Ankara organized by the Center for Middle Eastern Studies (ORSAM) in association with the Turkish Culture Ministry’s Presidency for Turks Abroad and Related Communities (YTB).
Since March of 2018, Gazans have held weekly rallies along the buffer zone to demand the right of Palestinian refugees to return to their homes in historical Palestine from which they were driven in 1948 to make way for the new state of Israel.
They also demand an end to Israel’s 12-year blockade of the Gaza Strip, which has gutted the coastal enclave’s economy and deprived its roughly two million inhabitants of many basic commodities.
Since the rallies began more than a year ago, scores of protesters have been killed -- and thousands more injured -- by Israeli troops deployed near the buffer zone.
Mediating the Country Migration Policies session, Isler underlined that some 6 million Syrians were forced to migrate from their homelands due to the civil war.
Syria has been locked in a devastating conflict since early 2011, when the Assad regime cracked down on demonstrators with unexpected brutality.
Since then, hundreds of thousands of people have been killed and more than 10 million displaced, according to UN figures.
Isler stressed that this refugee crisis paved the way for human smuggling, illegal migration, and economic problems in the region.
He also called on international community to share the burdens of refugees.
Turkey currently hosts some 3.6 million Syrians, more than any other country in the world.
-Turkey doesn’t call Syrians refugees or migrants, but guests
Yasin Aktay, an advisor to Turkey's ruling Justice and Development (AK) Party, distinguished between sociological and forced migration.
Aktay explained that sociological migration stems from the idea of looking for a better education, higher-paid job, or even for an adventure.
But especially in the Mideast and North Africa region, people are forced to abandon their lands due to political oppression, instability and civil wars, he said.
Highlighting that migration has become a global issue and not just something seen in the Middle East, he cited the border between Texas and Mexico in the U.S.
Every year, hundreds of undocumented immigrants die while attempting to cross that border.
According to the Missing Migrant Project, an NGO initiative that tracks the deaths of migrants around the world, 214 men, 20 women, and four children died in 2018.
He also stressed that migration plays a positive role in raising the level of civilizations.
“All civilians are established after migration,” said Aktay, citing late British historian Arnold Toynbee.
He added that throughout history people have seen “very fruitful results” of migration since the newcomers also contribute to the hosting countries.
He also denied that “newcomers take a slice of the existing population’s pie.”
Speaking on visa-free travel among EU countries, he stressed that it is not possible to talk about internal migration in Europe.
“We have lifted visa obligations with Libya, Lebanon, and Jordan,” said Aktay, adding that this policy came after Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan came to power.
On the 3.6 million Syrian refugees in Turkey, he said: “Neither refugee, nor migrant, Turkey decided to call them guests.”
He hailed Turkey’s humanitarian approach to refugees, saying: “You’re no longer a human when you question whether to accept them [Syrians] or not when they come to your door. When you say no, they will die and you will be responsible for their deaths.”
