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Dear young Syrian men, Turkey is in Afrin for you, but where are you?

In the previous article, I had made a call saying, “Young Syrian men in Turkey, what are you waiting for?” I had underlined that the end was reached in Syria and that those who left their country to flee the terrorism of Daesh and the Kurdistan Workers’ Party’s (PKK) Syrian branch, the Democratic Union Party (PYD) and its People’s Protection Units (YPG) armed militia needed to return and lay claim to their homeland.


I received a lot of feedback for the article. Almost all the reactions I received were positive. And the number of those expecting young Syrian men to do something is quite high.


Turkey embracing Syrians shows how generous the Turkish people are. Having our borders wide open to them without ever asking, “Why are you coming?” is due to the greatness of this nation. The Anatolian region is the refuge of the oppressed and the home of the lonely. People from the Balkans and the Caucasus sought refuge in this region. The people of Anatolia never asked anyone why they came.


There is no problem here. The spirit of Anatolia is generous. Anatolian people are helpful – like the Ansar, the people who accepted Prophet Muhammad and his companions when he migrated from Mecca to Medina. The Anatolian region is physically small but spiritually big.


Hence, we opened our arms to those who fled the war in Syria. We made their problems our problem, their grief our grief. There is no problem up to here.


It’s like some Syrians are in Turkey not as migrants but to establish businesses


However, some of our people who reacted to the call in my last article, “Young Syrian men, what are you waiting for?” made important warnings as well.


First, they point to the huge difference in the number of people who came to Anatolia from the Caucasus and the Balkans, and the Syrians who are coming today. The number of those who last came from Bulgaria and Bosnia-Herzegovina is limited to a few thousand. The number of those who came from Afghanistan and Egypt is also the same. But from Syria, according to official figures, we have about 3.5 million refugees.


And besides the Syrians staying at camps, there are Syrians who have spread throughout almost every city in Turkey, and there are observations that they are the ones changing our sociology.


They are becoming ghettoized. They are bringing along their customs, behavior and lifestyle. They seem to have come to Turkey to find a job, to establish businesses rather than an asylum seeker or migrant. They live in the same suburbs, they are buying shops in the same suburbs at astronomical prices to establish businesses and opening places of business. There is no problem here either.


However, both our people’s “greediness” and Syrian refugees considering themselves privileged is changing the texture and spirit of suburbs. The locals in some suburbs are selling their homes and places of business out of their “greediness” and leaving.


Do not ask me whether there is any harm in this; just ask the people living in those suburbs and that will answer your question. (For example, the price of places of business and residential properties in certain suburbs has skyrocketed. There is one reason for this and that is that Syrians are opening businesses and buying homes in those suburbs.)


There are 940,000 young Syrian men in Turkey

There is another fact that is being pointed out. This is related to the age group and gender of the refugees that have crossed over from Syria to Turkey. According to June 2017 data, the male population between the ages of 18 and 50 is 790,000. Add to this the 150,000 young men aged between 15 and 18, the figure reaches 940,000. The number of Syrian men in Turkey with the capacity to work is almost 1 million!


The previous day, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said, “First me, then you.” In other words, he said, if mobilization is required; if the Turkish soldiers fighting in Afrin need support, “I will be the first to walk, and you will follow after me.” This is a very important stance. The nation is also behind Erdoğan’s stance. If we take note of those who have been applying at military recruitment offices for “voluntary military service” in the recent days, we can see the people’s stance.


It is at this point that the spokesperson for Syrian tribes made a call to the Syrian youth in Turkey through Yeni Şafak daily. He asked them to join the Free Syrian Army (FSA) to fight alongside Turkey.


Turkey is in a tough fight for the country’s perpetuity and for the 3.5 million Syrian guests to return to their land, their homeland and their country. Operation Olive Branch launched in Afrin by the Turkish Armed Forces (TAF) is only one stage of this tough fight. The fight is going to be long-term and will continue with much bigger ones.


The people stand by the Turkish soldiers. This nation is behind its commander-in-chief. Those who need to keep in step with this nation are the young Syrian men, some of whom are currently in our country as “guests!”


Otherwise, when one day all this is over, you will not be able to shake off the shame. Regardless of whether you stay in this country or return home.


If the time isn’t now, then when?


Am I wrong?

#Syria
#Turkey
#Refugees
#Afrin
6 years ago
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