Erdoğan: Turkey hosts 300,000 'registered and unregistered' Afghan refugees

Photo: AA

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Turkey currently hosts about 300,000 refugees from Afghanistan, President and Justice and Development Party (AKP) Chair Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has said.

"Turkey's main opposition said, 'One and a half million irregular migrants came to Turkey from Afghanistan' ... All these figures are lies. No such migration from Afghanistan happened," he told reporters after Friday prayers in İstanbul.

The total number of "registered and unregistered" Afghan refugees is 300,000, he added.

A UNHRC report released in February said the number of asylum seekers and refugees from Afghanistan in Turkey was 116,000. The largest refugee host of the world, Turkey also hosts some 3.6 million Syrian refugees.

The migration from Afghanistan has been widely discussed over the past one and a half months as hundreds of people fleeing the Taliban were crossing into Turkey every day. The government has started building a wall on the Iran border to curb migration.

The opposition has accused Erdoğan of making a secret deal with the US to accept Afghans who worked for the US during the 20-year occupation, which was denied by both Ankara and Washington.

"Mr. Kemal is a liar," Erdoğan said, referring to main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP) Chair Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu. "He has been refuted by the American Embassy."

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About the Taliban's takeover of Afghanistan, Erdoğan said, "America had some talks with us. We had talks with the Taliban occasionally. And we have said that we may hold such talks in the period ahead."

"Neither Russia nor America could show a healthy approach in their interventions," Erdoğan asserted.

Turkey, which has had non-combatant troops in the country for nearly two decades, has carried out both "infrastructure and superstructure works" in Afghanistan whereas Russia and the US "spent trillions for the military and weapons," said Erdoğan. "In the end, it has become clear where it has come." (DŞ/VK)