Syrians ‘hanging out with Turkish girls’ while soldiers die in al-Bab, main opposition MP says

ANKARA

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Main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) deputy Öztürk Yılmaz has raised eyebrows by suggesting that Syrians in Turkey “are hanging around with Turkish girls” while Turkish soldiers are dying in Syria.

“Our soldiers are being martyred in al-Bab and Syria. At the same time, looking at the age range of Syrian men who have arrived in Turkey, there are 819,350 aged between 15 and 44 who could be drafted into the army but are hanging around with Turkish girls in cafes and pubs,” Yılmaz, the CHP’s deputy chair responsible for foreign relations, told journalists at parliament on Feb. 1.

Commented on Turkey’s ongoing Euphrates Shield operation in al-Bab in northern Syria, he stressed that the “uncontrolled passage” of refugees into Turkey had created security problems. 

Öztürk also commented on U.S. President Donald Trump’s travel ban on seven Muslim-majority countries, describing it as “Islamophobic and racist.”

“There is hypocrisy here. This hypocrisy is not only in Europe. We can say the government, which accused the Europeans of staying silent when the Syrian refugees entered Turkey, is engaging in hypocrisy by staying silent on the issue in the U.S.,” he said. 

“It may be keen to avoid friction with Trump as soon as he enters office, but there are some issues where it will not mean anything if you stay silent but yell about afterwards,” Yılmaz added. 

Yılmaz was Turkey’s consul-general in Mosul in mid-2014 when the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) occupied the town and took all Turkish diplomats and their families hostage for 101 days. Up his return to Turkey he joined the CHP.