Turkey: Kilicdaroglu courts anti-refugee vote with dubious claim of '10 million' migrants

Turkish opposition presidential candidate Kemal Kilicdaroglu has made an anti-migrant video in the run-up to the second round of presidential elections on 28 May.

He accused the government of incumbent Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of allowing "10 million" refugees into the country, referring to the refugees as “irregular migrants” and sharply inflating actual estimates of Turkey’s refugee population.

The UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) says that there are around 3.9 million refugees in Turkey, 3.5 million of whom have fled the conflict in neighbouring Syria.

"We will not abandon our homeland to this mentality that allowed 10 million irregular migrants to come among us," Kilicdaroglu, who represents the secularist Republican People’s Party (CHP) said in a video posted to Twitter on Wednesday.

"Those who love their homeland, come to the ballot box," he told Turkish voters.

This is desperate behavior — and abhorrent rhetoric.

In a bid to win extreme nationalist votes, @kilicdarogluk says “10 million refugees” need to be urgently expelled from #Turkey in order to save the country#Syria refugees (3.5m, not 10m) just can’t catch a break. https://t.co/FlXy7F3p1j

— Charles Lister (@Charles_Lister) May 17, 2023

He had earlier “liked” a tweet by a notorious anti-Syrian mayor calling for the expulsion of refugees.

Kilicdaroglu's statements come after a relatively poor showing in the first round of Turkish presidential and parliamentary elections, which took place last Sunday.

While opinion polls showed the opposition candidate slightly in the lead before the elections, he received just over 44.88 percent of the vote, while Erdogan received 49.51 percent.

Syrian refugees have been a major election issue, with increasing racism and xenophobia against them in Turkey. Politicians have played on these sentiments, scapegoating the refugees for Turkey’s economic problems.

Prior to the first round of elections, Kilicdaroglu vowed to return the 3.5 million Syrian refugees to Syria within two years.

In his latest video, he warned that the number of “irregular” migrants could go up to 30 million without providing any explanation.

Kilicdaroglu's latest video marks a significant hardening of his anti-migrant rhetoric and appears to be an appeal to supporters of Sinan Ogan, an anti-migrant nationalist who gained 5.17 percent of the vote in the first round of presidential elections.

Both Erdogan and Kilicdaroglu are courting Ogan’s supporters in the run-up to the second round.