Turkey’s Kılıçdaroğlu vows to drive out ’10 million’ refugees if elected

Turkey’s opposition presidential candidate, Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu pledged on Thursday to expel “10 million refugees” if he is elected after the May 28 run-off.

“As soon as I come to power, I will send all refugees back to their homes,” Kılıçdaroğlu said, putting the total number in Turkey at some 10 million.”

Kılıçdaroğlu’s camp labels the run-off election as a “matter of survival” for Turkey.

In his remarks to newsmen in Ankara, he said if incumbent Recep Tayyip Erdoğan is re-elected, a further 10 million asylum seekers would arrive in Turkey.

The secular leader’s return of anti-migrant fears came after he came in second to Erdoğan in the May 14 presidential election.

He desperately needed nationalist support from the third-place runner Sinan Oğan.

According to the UN, there are 3.9 million refugees in Turkey, including those from neighbouring Syria.

Kılıçdaroğlu refused to share any scientific data for his 10 million refugee remark and further accused Erdoğan of compromising Turkey’s border security.

On his Twitter account on Monday, he said he would stop the “flood of people flowing into our veins every day,” referring to the refugees in Turkey.

The secular nationalist Sinan Oğan, who finished third in the election with 5.17 per cent of votes, emerged as a potential kingmaker for Erdoğan at 49.52 per cent and Kılıçdaroğlu at 44.88 per cent of votes.

It was unclear if Oğan could manage to mobilise his over 2.8 million voters to back the candidate he endorsed.

Local pollster Özer Sencar told dpa on Tuesday that he expected the majority of Oğan supporters to vote for Erdoğan.

In the run-off, a simple majority of above 50 per cent would be enough to win.

Amid alleged data manipulation, Kılıçdaroğlu said his camp planned to deploy as many as 1 million election observers at the polling stations.