Turkish envoy hails Canada for hosting Syrian refugees

Turkey’s ambassador to Ottawa praised Canada’s role in hosting Syrian refugees while saying many other countries have failed to respond to take similar steps.

In his article he wrote for the Canadian newspaper The Hill Times, Selcuk Unal said Turkey’s open-door policy would continue for refugees fleeing their homes for various reasons including violence.

Unal emphasized that the Turkish people had welcomed migrants, refugees and asylum seekers with "tolerance and hospitality" throughout history, including Crimean Tatars, Poles, Swedes, Hungarians, Russians, Jews escaping from Inquisition or Nazi Germany, Afghans, Bosnians, Kosovars, Macedonians, Iraqis and Syrians.

“Those people belonged to many different ethnic and religious backgrounds; yet one thing they all shared was the trust they had for Turkey: a safe harbor,” he added.

Having accepted more than 50,000 refugees from Syria while other countries were “sitting on the fences”, Unal said Canada is one of the few countries who should be thanked in this regard.

“In that respect, like Canada, Turkey has become home to many peoples from different cultures living in harmony,” he said.

Underlining Turkey’s role as the largest refugee-hosting country in the world with nearly 4 million refugees from Syria and Iraq, Unal said Turkey was “shouldering more than its fair share” of responsibilities with almost $32 billion of expenditures so far.

“The two NATO Allies could have more avenues not only to meet needs, but to effectively reduce risks and vulnerabilities over time as well as to work on the humanitarian crises the humanity will be facing,” he added.

Turkey hosts 3.5 million Syrian refugees, more than any other country in the world. The country has spent more than $32 billion from its own national resources for helping and sheltering refugees since the beginning of the Syrian civil war.

Syria has only just begun to emerge from a devastating conflict that began in 2011 when the Assad regime cracked down on demonstrators with unexpected ferocity.