CHP urges gov’t not to make any deal with West over Afghan refugees

ANKARA

Main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) leader Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu has demanded the government not to make any deal with the West that would bring more refugees from Afghanistan following Taliban’s takeover of the country.

“What is the government doing? It says it will talk to the Taliban. There is a 2,940-kilometer distance between us [Turkey] and Afghanistan. The migrants are coming through Iran. Why do you talk to Taliban and not Iran?” Kılıçdaroğlu said on Twitter on Aug. 17.

He urged President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan not to make any deal with Western countries that would bring more refugees to Turkey.

Kılıçdaroğlu’s message came after German Chancellor Angela Merkel suggested more cooperation with Turkey in handling the crisis in Afghanistan and a potential refugee influx from this country.

“The European leaders have started to say, ‘We should solve the Afghan refugee problem with Turkey.’ Why does the EU want to talk to Turkey and not Iran? We are not Afghanistan’s neighbor,” he suggested.

Meanwhile, Meral Akşener, the chair of İYİ (Good) Party, has urged the government to pull back all Turkish troops from Afghanistan and criticized Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) leader Devlet Bahçeli after he said the troops must remain in the country.

“What is left from Afghanistan? Why should our troops stay there? Stop talking nonsense just to please the United States and withdraw our soldiers from this swamp,” she said on Twitter.