migratory becomes the top issue on its political agenda Turkeywho faces decisive elections next year, as a result, in addition to the president Tayyip Erdogan bet on xenophobia and opposition. If in the past the country accepted Syrian refugees with open arms, now the dire state of the Turkish economy makes them hostages of small-party confrontation.

“Turkish president wants to get rid of refugees,” German magazine Der Spiegel wrote yesterday, while the head of the Good Party (İYİ) Meral Axener, announced its immigration doctrine as well as its action plan. There are at least 8 million refugees and illegal immigrants in the country, Aksener said, and she accused Erdogan of turning the country into a “refugee warehouse.” He vowed to send all Syrian refugees home by September 2026 if he wins the election and urged citizens to direct their anger at Erdogan and not at the migrants.

Immigration is a major electoral issue, as the economic hardship makes refugees hostage to small-party opposition.

Her plan calls for draconian measures such as sequestering illegal migrants in concentration camps and forced repatriation. At the same time, Syrian refugees will be excluded from public parks and beaches if their behavior is “detrimental to public peace” and they will be denied the benefits they receive.

Erdogan’s party, the AKP, has suffered from the erosion of public opinion, especially in major urban centers (Istanbul, Ankara, Trabzon), where its influence has declined by 10-15%. And the opposition’s common front, however, faces cohesion problems as it takes a different stance on cooperation with the third largest pro-Kurdish HDP.

Republican People’s Party officials consider it legal to include HDP members in the new government, while Aksener ruled out such a possibility. “We are not going to sit at the same table with the HDP,” said the head of the Good Party. It is recalled that many officials of the pro-Kurdish party are accused of close ties with the Kurdish PKK, which is considered a terrorist organization in the country, and its leader Selahattin Demirtas is in prison.